/  c^  ^-6 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

Carle ton  Shay 


RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 


RUSSIA    FROM 
WITHIN 


BY 


ALEXANDER  ULAR 


NEW    YORK 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1905 


Printed  in  EiigU 


Authorised  Translation 


VK 


PREFACE 


These  pages  will  come  as  a  shock  to  some  very 
sincere  friends  of  Russia.  Those  who  confound  the 
Russian  Nation  with  the  Bureaucratic  System  by  which 
she  is  governed,  will  be  inclined  to  dispute  a  number  ot 
apparently  improbable  facts  which  I  have  cited  in  order 
to  bring  out  the  character  of  Contemporary  Tsardom. 
It  is  my  duty  to  put  them  on  their  guard  against  such 
generous  impulses.  This  book  is  not  a  pamphlet,  but  an 
account  of  the  general  conditions  prevailing  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Russian  Revolution.  In  these,  the  personal 
action  of  the  Executive — Tsar,  Princes,  Ministers,  and 
Generals — is  the  capital  factor.  Analysis  of  this  Execu- 
tive was,  therefore,  incumbent  on  me,  by  juxtaposition  of 
the  most  typical  facts  relating  to  its  action.  The  facts 
do  not  make  pretty  reading.  But  they  are  authentic, 
historical,  exact.  And  it  is  facts  alone  that  are  of 
importance.  The  personages  themselves  are  uninterest- 
ing, and  I  regard  them  merely  as  the  casual  actors  of  a 
historic  part.  From  this  standpoint,  therefore,  I  discuss 
them  freely,  solely  in  view  of  the  accuracy  of  the  picture 
I  have  drawn  of  contemporary  Russian  politics. 

In  this  picture  there  is  no  scope  for  predictions  of  the 


vi  PREFACE 

issues  of  the  Revolutionary  Crisis.  I  have  confined 
myself  to  the  explanation  of  current  events  by  exposing 
the  sources  in  which  they  originated.  I  make  no  com- 
ments. My  aim  is  only  to  give  those  who  have  not  had 
opportunity  of  studying  the  internal  machinery  of 
Russian  Political  Life  a  statement  of  facts,  by  which 
they  may  interpret  and  judge  the  disturbances  of  the 
present  Movement,  whence  we  may  be  sure  that  a  Free 
Russia  will  emerge. 

ALEXANDER  ULAR. 

Jfaj,  1905. 


CONTENTS 


Preface 


The  Assassination  of  Plehve,  and  the  Antecedents 
OF  the  Revolution 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  Dynasty  and  the  Court 20 

Peter  III.  and  Paul  I 

23 

Alexander  I 

24 

Nicholas  I 

25 

Alexander  II 

27 

Alexander  III. 

29 

The  Psychology  of  Nicholas  II. 

36 

The  Influence  of  the  Empresses 

39 

Occult  Influences 

42 

The  Government  of  Nicholas  II. 

48 

Subservience  of  Nicholas  II. 

50 

Nicholas  the  Megalonianiac 

55 

The  Reign  of  Terror 

59 

Nicholas  II.  and  the  Malversation  of  Funds 

63 

The  Irresponsible  Autocrat  .... 

69 

The  Grand  Dukes  .                .... 

71 

Leaders  of  Rank  and  File    . 

72) 

Serge         

75 

Vladimir 

82 

Alexis 

96 

Alexander  Mikhailovitch        .... 

97 

Nicholas  Nicholaievitch        .... 

98 

The  Pillars  of  Tsardom         .... 

99 

Vlll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

II. 

PAGE 

^ENT  OF  THE   BUREAUCRACY lOI 

Decline  of  the  Aristocracy   . 

4 

103 

Bureaucratic  Principles 

105 

The  Oligarchy 

106 

The  Moscow  Group 

107 

The  Masters  of  Alexander  III. 

109 

Pobiedonostseff 

no 

Plehve 

112 

Muravieff 

114 

Plehve's  Privy  Papers    . 

115 

The  Creation  of  Anti-Semitism 

117 

Plehve  the  Conspirator  . 

120 

Constitution  of  the  Oligarchical  Group 

123 

Court,  Army,  and  Police 

127 

CHAPTER    III. 

WiTTE's  Regime 133 

The  Economic  Upheaval 138 

The  Screw — Always  the  Screw 140 

Taxes  and  Misery 148 

Decay  of  Industry 151 

Monetary  Reforms 155 

Agricultural  Distress 157 

Impoverishment 159 

An  Exhausted  Nation 165 

Motives  Underlying  Fiscal  Oppression      ....  167 

Policy  of  Expansion .  i6g 

The  Russo-Chinese  Empire         .        .               ...  173 

Interv^ention  of  the  Oligarchy 175 

Triumph  of  Reaction 178 

Plehve  as  Dictator 180 

The  Provocation  to  War 187 

The  Impasse .        .  190 


CONTENTS 


IX 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  National  Awakening     . 

Bureaucratic  Nationalism      .... 

The  Finlanders 

The  Poles 

Germans  of  the  Baltic  Provinces,  Esthonians, 

Letts,  Lithuanians,  White  Russians 
Georgians,  Armenians,  Tribes  of  the  Caucasus 

The  Ruthenians 

The  Jews 

The  Anti-Semitism  of  the  Government 
The  Jewish  Revolution 

The  Moral  Crisis 

The  Legal  Arbitrament 
Transformation  of  the  Laws 
Judicial  Prevarication     .... 
The  General  Corruption 
The  Army  of  Thieves  and  Traitors    . 

The  Social  Crisis 

The  Peasants 

The  Intellectual  Crisis   .... 
The  Revolution 


Livonians, 


PAGE 

200 
206 

213 

214 
218 

223 

111 

241 
244 
249 

254 
257 
260 
267 
277 


RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 


RUSSIA    FROM    WITHIN 

The    Assassination    of    Pleiive,    and    the 
Antecedents  of  the  Revolution 

A  new  Era  is  dawning  upon  Russia.  The  halo  of 
Omnipotence,  which  for  more  than  a  century  has  made 
Tsardom  the  object  of  admiration  to  Princes,  of 
execration  to  their  Peoples,  is  waning.  Materially  and 
morally  the  Russian  Autocracy  is  in  a  state  of  senile 
decay,  which  must  inevitably  terminate  in  death.  It  has 
outlived  itself.  During  a  period  of  nearly  thirty  years, 
a  process  of  internal  decomposition  has  destroyed  the 
greater  part  of  the  vital  energy,  and  even  the  rigid 
structure,  of  that  political  organisation  which  the  world 
believed  the  most  stable  and  most  powerful  in  existence. 
Throughout  this  period  of  corruption,  the  most  civilised 
nations,  the  most  subtle  diplomatists,  the  most  astute 
financiers,  have  been  prostrating  themselves  before  the 
worm-eaten  throne  of  the  Tsars. 

By  a  sad  irony  of  fate,  the  prestige  of  the  Muscovite 
Autocracy  has  increased  beyond  the  Russian  Frontier, 
in  proportion  to  the  decline  of  its  internal  forces.  The 
growing  influence  of  the  Tsar  in  the  affairs  of  other 
nations  was  conditioned  by  the  same  causes  as  the 
decline  of  the  Tsarian   System  within   the  confines  of 

B 


2  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Russia.  The  fatally  victorious  war  with  Turkey  falsi- 
fied alike  the  internal  and  external  situation  of  Tsardom. 
His  victories  made  the  Tsar  the  arbiter  of  peace  and 
war  in  Europe.  His  brilliant  display  of  military  power 
dazzled  a  world  that  was  still  enthralled  by  Bismarck's 
colossal  successes.  A  possible  counterpoise  to  the  dis- 
quieting ambitions  of  the  rising  German  Empire  had 
been  sought  in  all  directions.  And  it  was  a  real  relief 
to  insist  on  the  glorious  strength  of  Russia.  Her  friend- 
ship was  eagerly  solicited  ;  and  the  Tsars  were  shrewd 
enough  to  demand  the  highest  price  in  order  to  spread 
the  external  glamour  of  their  strength  still  further.  An 
enormous  supply  of  capital  flowed  in.  It  was  utilised 
for  new  military  prowess  ;  expansion  across  the  Asiatic 
deserts  was  initiated.  And  while  the  political  world, 
blinded  by  so  much  audacity,  applauded  the  irresistible 
deluge  or  trembled  at  it,  Russia  succeeded  in  capturing 
even  the  advanced  intellects  by  the  creation  of  vast 
factitious  industries  that  were  designed  to  give  the 
Empire  the  prestige  of  a  modern  State.  The  facade  of 
Tsardom  confronted  a  dazzled  Europe.  "  It  is  from  the 
North  that  the  Light  now  comes  to  us,"  chanted  the 
hypnotised  poets.  And  those  who  had  the  "  morbid  " 
curiosity  to  investigate  the  foundations  of  all  this 
splendour,  and  who  on  the  farther  sicle  of  the  Russian 
frontier  discovered  no  radiant  focus,  but  only  a  colossal 
organism  inert  and  putrefying,  were  labelled  fools  or 
imbeciles. 

The  Tsar's  fatal  victory  over  the  Sultan,  neverthe- 
less, carried  stagnation  into  the  bowels  of  the  Russian 
Colossus.  After  the  disaster  of  Sevastopol,  the  life  of 
the  Russian  Nation  moved  in  a  lamentably  vicious 
circle.  Exactly  fifty  years  elapsed  between  the  two 
dates  most  fatal  to  the  dream  of  the  universal  supremacy 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE      3 

of  Tsardom.  Sevastopol  was  the  symbol  of  Russian 
aspirations  in  the  East ;  Port  Arthur  incarnated  the 
idea  of  Russian  preponderance  in  the  Far  East.  The 
fall  of  these  two  main  ramparts  of  the  Tsar's  power 
marks  the  alpha  and  omega  of  an  epoch  in  which  Tsar- 
dom evolved  through  a  period  of  external  splendour 
from  one  disaster  to  another,  while  the  Russian  Nation, 
or,  to  speak  more  exactly  the  congeries  of  nations  subject 
to  Muscovite  Autocracy,  progressed  from  hopes  that  were 
too  quickly  falsified,  through  a  hell  of  oppression  and 
suffering,  to  a  new  hope,  more  luminous  and  more 
rational.  If  this  half-century,  which  is  unique  in  history, 
be  divided  into  two  portions  as  nearly  as  possible  equal, 
two  essentially  contradictory  periods  will  be  marked 
out.  The  first,  which  extends  from  the  defeat  of  the 
Crimea  to  the  victory  of  Plevna,  exhibits  the  beneficent 
consequences  to  the  Nation  of  its  masters'  distress.  The 
Crimean  War  had  inaugurated  an  abyss  of  desolation  : 
the  Russian  Empire  appeared  rotten  to  the  core,  even  to 
its  own  rulers.  And  it  was  a  question  of  life  or  death 
to  them  to  regenerate  the  bases  of  their  apparent 
strength,  by  means  of  a  total  transformation  of  the 
moral  conditions  in  which  the  people  were  living — or 
vegetating.  This  was  the  era  of  the  "  great  reforms  of  the 
sixties,"  which  illustrated  the  reign  of  Alexander  II. 
A  revivifying  breath  passed  over  the  country,  which 
seemed  to  be  on  the  verge  of  awakening  from  a  secular 
nightmare.  The  productive  classes  of  the  Nation,  the 
commons  and  the  peasants,  were  raised  from  the  condi- 
tion of  cattle  to  the  dignity  of  human  beings.  Serfdom 
was  abolished.  The  nobles,  who  jealously  guarded  the 
appalling  prerogatives  of  the  Mongol  avidotticri  who 
were  their  ancestors,  were  constrained  to  efface  the  line 
of  (iLMnarcation  tiiat  till  then  had  separated  them  from  the 

B   2 


4  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

human  cattle  they  governed.     Russia  became  almost  a 
European  country. 

But  a  system  such  as  Tsardom — a  system  in  which 
the  arbitrary  executive  of  the  Monarch  is  imitated  by 
everyone  who  possesses  a  fraction  of  official  authority, 
a  system  in  which  the  Government  machine  works  only 
to  enhance  the  external  notoriety  of  its  Chief — can  only 
exist  where  the  oppressed  people  are  resigned  to  play 
the  part  of  mere  brute  material  indefinitely.      This  was 
now  at  an  end.      Favours  had  been  conferred,  with  the 
announcement  that  the  people  were  raised  to  the  dignity 
of  a  Nation.     They  had  been  enfranchised — on  paper — 
but  were  provided  with  no  means  of  enjoying  their  privi- 
leges.    They  had  been  authorised,  encouraged  even,  to 
feel  themselves  a  united  mass  of  conscious  human  beings. 
What  wonder  then  that  these  hordes  of  beasts  of  burden, 
suddenly  converted  by  the  grace  of  the  Tsar  into   a 
human    crowd,   should    in    their    sudden    felicity    have 
realised  themselves  Men,  and  discovered  that  the  favours 
granted  were  in  reality  only  a  right — rather  an  infini- 
tesimal fraction  of  the  rights — of  Man,  which  every  self- 
conscious    individual    must    regard    as  his  natural    and 
inalienable    appanage  ?     But    the   moment  the    Nation 
regarded  as   its   rights    what  the   distorted  brain   of  a 
degenerate  Sovereign  had  imagined  he  might  offer  as  a 
gracious  gift,  the  relations  between  People  and  Autocrat 
were  bound  to  suffer  a  radical  alteration.     The  Tsar- 
Autocrat,  who  admits  but  one  right  within  his  Empire, 
his  own  personal  initiative,  was  henceforward  compelled 
to  look  on  the  bulk  of  his  people  as  virtual  Revolution- 
aries.    And  the  Nation,  perceiving  that  its  Masters  never 
would  admit  as  human  rights  the  favours  that  had  been 
flung  to   it,   could   only   see   in  Tsardom   an    inimical, 
tyrannical  system. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE      5 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  very  reforms  of  Alex- 
ander II.  contained  the  germs  of  fresh  dissensions  be- 
tween the  people  and  the  autocracy.  The  infatuated 
Tsar  revoked  as  many  of  his  "  favours  "  and  reforms  as 
possible.  The  disappointed  people  thenceforward  de- 
fended as  their  right  what  the  Autocrat  regarded  as 
charity.  The  result  was  a  sinister  and  ominous  fight 
between  the  despot,  repenting  him  of  his  liberalism, 
and  those  who  voiced  the  claims  of  the  people.  This 
was  the  first  grand  era  of  Nihilism.  The  Russo-Turkish 
War  presented  itself  as  an  admirable  diversion  from  the 
internal  maladies  of  the  nation.  It  was  unfortunately 
victorious.  The  glare  of  success  blinded  the  masses 
themselves  for  the  moment.  The  Tsar  had  conquered  : 
Tsarism  triumphed  within  as  well  as  without.  More 
presumptuous  than  ever  he  had  dared  to  be  before,  the 
Autocrat  insisted  on  the  gracious  character  of  all  his 
concessions.  He  elevated  himself  grotesquely  on  a 
superhuman  pedestal.  He  no  longer  admitted  any 
criticism,  any  appearance  of  human  dignity.  His  prin- 
ciple was  "  Down  with  the  wretches  !  " — the  "  wretch  " 
being  the  man  who  was  conscious  of  his  natural  rights. 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  reject  on  principle,  for  fear  of 
diminishing  his  authority,  the  appeals  of  the  poor  fools 
who  were  speaking  in  defence  of  Tsardom.  What  the 
Tsarian  regime  does  is  well,  was  the  motto  of  the  Auto- 
cracy. He  that  criticises  no  matter  what  act  of  Tsardom 
is  a  criminal,  that  of  the  Administration.  The  former 
dictum  at  once  became  the  cloak  for  the  most  mon- 
strous abuses  on  the  part  of  the  State  officials  :  pecula- 
tion was  overtly  carried  on  to  an  incredible  degree  ; 
refusal  of  justice  was  an  act  of  virtue  ;  the  most  bare- 
faced exploitation  of  the  defenceless  subject  by  the 
irresponsible  functionary  characterised  this  regime,  the 


6  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

outcome  of  the  Russian  victory.  The  audacious  male- 
factors who  still  clamoured  for  justice,  even  in  the  most 
trivial  matters — those  who  appealed  on  any  occasion  to 
"  this  impious  hallucination  of  universal  rights,"  as  said 
the  insane  Alexander  II. — were  rebels,  "nihilists,"  so- 
called,  perhaps,  because  they  were  unable  to  obtain  one 
jot  of  all  that  constitutes  the  minimum  of  necessary 
rights  to  the  self-conscious  individual. 

It  was  thus  that  the  victory  over  Turkey  inaugurated 
that  internal  moral  decadence  in  Russia  which  ensued 
on  the  passing  impetus  given  by  the  Crimean  defeat. 
During  the  twenty-five  years  that  elapsed  between 
Plevna  and  Port  Arthur,  the  shadows  have  unceasingly 
deepened.  The  insolence  of  Tsardom  has  grown  with 
the  infatuation  of  the  foreigners  who  burned  incense 
before  it.  The  Russian  nation  has  again  been  subjugated 
imperceptibly,  but  with  growing  pace,  to  a  regime^  the 
only  parallel  to  which  is  provided  by  the  closing  epoch 
of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Equally  imperceptibly,  but 
with  fatal  certainty,  has  Tsardom  prepared  the  expia- 
tory catastrophe  which  will  engulf  it.  Its  quondavi 
"  favours  "  have  endowed  the  People  with  an  ineradicable 
consciousness  of  their  dignity  ;  have  provided  them  with 
the  means  of  comparing  themselves  with  civilised 
nations:  and  even  if  the  three  caricatures  of  Autocrats 
who,  for  twenty-five  years,  have  sullied  the  Throne  of 
this  vastest  of  Empires  by  their  moral  degeneracy 
have  succeeded,  by  their  terrorism,  perjury,  lies,  theft, 
assassination  and  duplicity,  in  hoodwinking  modern 
humanity,  in  gagging  their  victims,  in  ridiculing  all 
noble  aspiration,  and  in  concealing  innumerable  crimes, 
perversions,  the  immorality  of  their  entotirage,  and  the 
corruption  that  putrefies  everything  they  touch,  beneath 
the  cloak  of  their  Imperial  dignity,  there  is  at  least  one 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE      7 

thing  they  have  been  unable  to  infect — and  that  is  the 
native  good  sense  of  the  masses.  This  supreme  faculty  of 
even  those  to  whom  all  healthy  mental  pabulum  is  re- 
fused, who  are  stuffed  with  superstitions,  lies,  and  vain  pro- 
mises, has  enabled  the  Russian  Nation  in  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  to  feel  the  whole  ignominy  of  the  Tsardom 
that  oppresses  them  with  ever-increasing  weight.  No 
hYiman  being  can  support  a  burden  whose  weight  is  for 
ever  increasing:  there  comes  a  breaking-point  at  which  he 
gives  way  ;  or  else  his  crushed  vitality  explodes  in  some 
final  spasm,  sets  him  on  his  feet  by  an  exercise  of  super- 
human force,  and  shakes  off  the  insufferable  load. 

This  moment  has  arrived  for  the  Russian  Nation.  It 
remained  in  apathy  to  the  ultimate  moment :  it  saw  and 
felt  the  increment  of  the  criminal  burdens  which  its 
tyrants  imposed  at  their  own  pleasure.  Resentment, 
bitter  rage,  contempt,  hatred,  battened  galore  on  the 
abominable  sins  that  were  committed.  The  soul  of  the 
People,  the  soul  of  the  victims  collectively,  was  filled 
with  anguish.  Twenty-five  years  of  accumulated  suffering 
were  brought  to  birth  by  one  supreme  effort,  so  soon  as 
the  controlling  nerve  of  Hope  was  stimulated. 

July  28,  1904,  was  the  historic  date  at  which  this  hope 
was  quickened.  The  explosion  of  the  Terrorist  bomb 
beneath  the  iron-plated  carriage  of  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  von  Plehve,  must  be  regarded  as  the  initial 
point  of  the  Russian  Revolution.  The  history  of  the 
Western  World  presents  no  other  example  of  an  attempt 
whose  effects  have  been  so  immediate  and  so  big  with 
result,  as  the  sudden  suppression  of  this  man.  But  this 
effect  is  easily  explicable.  Plehve  was  not  merely  the 
chief  representative,  but  the  actual  incarnation,  of  the 
regime  which  brought  the  Autocracy  from  Plevna  to 
Port  Arthur,  and  the  Nation  from  "  liberty  by  favour  "  to 


8  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

ferocious  slavery.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  was 
a  certain  internal  relation  between  the  piteous  lessons  of 
the  Russo-Japanese  War,  and  the  act  of  the  two  Terrorists 
Sazonoff  and  Sikorski,  who  prepared  the  destruction  of 
this  living  emblem  of  Tsardom.  These  relations,  how- 
ever, are  far-fetched.  The  stupefying  internal  dis- 
organisation of  the  Tsarian  regime — which  will  be  set 
forth  below — had  long  been  felt  by  Russia  ;  the  dis- 
asters in  Manchuria  merely  impressed  on  the  whole 
civilised  world,  after  twenty-five  years  of  obstinate  blind- 
ness, the  lessons  that  the  Russian  People  had  learned 
too  well  during  this  period  of  oppression.  Carried  into 
execution,  as  it  was,  after  the  great  expose  of  Tsarist 
decadence  that  resulted  from  the  war,  the  murder  of 
Plehve  has  met  with  general  sympathy.  Still  it  is 
absolutely  certain  that  the  appalling  rush  to  the  abyss 
accomplished  by  the  Internal  Administration  was  more 
than  adequate  to  arm  the  Terrorists,  and  to  provoke  an 
outbreak  of  hatred  and  of  hope  which  could  never  have 
resulted  from  any  single  act,  in  consequence  of  this 
typical  crime. 

And,  in  fact,  the  entire  Russian  Nation,  sinking 
beneath  its  load  of  misfortunes,  was  expecting  and 
counting  on  an  event  of  this  character  as  a  means 
of  expressing  its  feelings.  It  would  have  taken  place 
even  had  there  been  no  war.  The  intellectual  leaders  of 
the  Russian  People  were  well  aware  of  this.  They  had 
been  thinking  for  more  than  two  years  of  striking  a 
decisive  blow,  and  only  hesitated  at  the  difficulty  of 
striking  true.  Without  entering  in  detail — as  in  a  game 
of  chess — into  all  the  possible  strokes  and  counter- 
strokes  in  which  one  or  another  violent  and  sensational 
act  might  involve  the  Russian  Nation,  their  national 
instinct  had,  if  we  may  venture  to  say  so,  led  them  to 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE      9 

regard  the  startling  death  of  Plehve  as  the  catastrophe 
best  calculated  for  the  sudden  stirring  of  the  apathy  of 
the  fettered  masses  to  virile  anger.  The  assassination  of 
Plehve  was,  in  fact,  decided  on  as  early  as  1902.  For  two 
years  every  attempt  was  futile.  But — a  fact  well  worthy  of 
notice — the  Russian  People  believed  more  and  more  in  the 
inevitable  execution  of  the  crime  :  towards  the  end  they 
expected  it  from  day  to  day.  Public  opinion — hidden, 
but  none  the  less  alive,  though  sullen  and  oppressed 
— was  impatient  to  see  the  deed  of  lynch  law  accom- 
plished. The  extreme  importance  of  this  act,  once 
performed,  was  so  well  understood  by  all  classes  of 
society,  that  the  Grand  Duchess  Elizabeth  said  to  a 
foreign  lady,  some  time  before  the  event,  that  "  the  assas- 
sination of  Plehve  would  be  the  beginning  of  the  end  ;  " 
whilst  men  of  science,  barristers,  doctors,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  groups  of  artisans  or  secret  political  societies,  were 
already  resolving  upon  the  line  of  conduct  that  they 
would  adopt  after  the  disappearance  of  the  individual 
who  had  gained  personal  control  over  all  the  forces  of 
Tsardom  for  the  sole  purpose  of  distributing  them  freely 
in  the  interests  of  the  egoistical  caste  that  predominated. 
This  impatience  reached  even  the  greatest  personages 
in  the  capital.  From  mysterious  sources,  now  published, 
considerable  sums  of  money  were  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  intangible  Terrorist  Group,  who,  in  the  face 
of  everyone,  plotted  the  catastrophe.  Manufacturers, 
princes,  even  society  ladies,  contributed  to  the  expenses 
of  the  plot — less,  perhaps,  for  the  sake  of  their  country, 
than  from  a  desire  to  experience  the  emotion  of  creating 
a  "  sensation."  The  expenses,  indeed,  were  enormous. 
It  was  necessary  to  have  a  system  of  surveillance  to 
note  the  slightest  movement  of  the  destined  victim. 
It  was  necessary,   in  spite  of  the  dangers  which  beset 


lo  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  Cause,  to  abrogate  the  principle  of  the  Terrorist 
Group,  which  consists  in  never  forming  a  fixed  associa- 
tion, in  never  allowing  one  member  to  know  more  than 
two  or  three  others,  in  never  having  any  headquarters, 
in  never  enlisting  more  than  a  few  adherents  in  each 
locality.  The  task  of  the  assassins  was  extremely 
difficult,  and  took  a  long  time  to  execute.  A  counter- 
police  was  indispensable  to  spy  out  all  the  details  of  the 
Ministerial  police-bodyguard,  and  the  assassins'  system 
was  even  more  elaborately  organised  and  stronger  than 
the  Tsar's.  The  Minister  expended  a  sum  of  400,000 
roubles — more  than  ^^40,000 — a  year  on  personal  police 
protection.  He  went  out  in  a  carriage  of  peculiar  shape 
and  hermetically  sealed,  which  had  blinds  of  nickel- 
plated  steel,  proof  against  revolver  bullets  and  even 
shrapnel.  The  streets  he  traversed  were  filled  with 
innumerable  droskies  occupied  by  his  agents  ;  and  it 
was  amid  this  crowd  of  vehicles,  which  stopped  for 
nothing,  that  he  drove  about.  Long  and  intricate 
corridors  separated  his  official  cabinet  from  the  outside 
world  :  every  visitor  unknown  to  the  high  officials  was 
searched  in  a  degrading  manner  before  entering  his 
presence.  His  following  of  five  hundred  personal  agents 
watched,  tracked  down,  arrested,  and  deported  all  who 
were  suspected  of  disapproval  of  his  policy.  Under 
these  circumstances  the  Terrorist  organisation  struggled 
ac^ainst  unheard-of  obstacles.  But  it  had  valuable 
co-operation.  By  the  spring  of  1904,  more  than  ^^"8,000 
must  have  been  spent  in  preparing  for  the  "  crime."  A  safe 
house  was  wanted — not,  of  course,  at  St.  Petersburg — for 
the  study  of  infernal  machines  and  for  the  centralising  of 
preparatory  experiments.  Of  its  precise  locality  the 
majority  of  the  members  of  the  Boyevaya  Organisatsia, 
or  "  Defensive  League,"  were  as  ignorant  as  the  police. 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE     ii 

This  house  had  to  be  bought ;  a  safe  porter  had  to  be 
found — a  most  difficult  matter  in  a  country  where  the 
Police  possesses  the  monopoly  of  these  employes,  who  are 
one  and  all  secret  agents  under  orders  to  communicate 
particulars  of  every  inhabitant  or  visitor  in  each  house 
to  their  chief  But  as,  for  some  years,  revolutionaries 
devoted  to  the  cause  have  enlisted  in  the  Police,  this 
obstacle  was  surmounted.  An  extraordinarily  simple 
plan  of  action,  but  one  demanding  the  utmost  coolness 
and  precision  from  its  organisers,  was  decided  on,  and 
the  fatal  moment  arrived. 

The  war  broke  out,  and  from  the  very  first  of  the 
Russian  defeats,  which  were  less  tragic  than  grotesque, 
it  was  felt  that  the  crime  in  preparation  would 
assume  an  international  importance  which  had  not 
at  first  been  apparent.  Yet  the  Terrorists  at  this 
time  felt  uneasy.  It  was  just  then  that  the  Russian 
military  caste,  in  a  moment  of  infatuation,  concocted  a 
desperate  intrigue — to  be  given  in  detail  later — which 
was  to  involve  England  and  France  in  the  war,  and  thus 
save  the  situation.  This  eventuality  might  endanger  the 
results  expected  from  Plehve's  suppression  ;  a  universal 
war  would  relegate  Russian  domestic  affairs  to  the 
second  place.  These  matters  were  communicated  to  us 
in  the  course  of  a  memorable  conversation.  We  had 
just  returned  from  St.  Petersburg — where,  by  a  ha{)py 
chance,  we  had  co-operated  in  the  unmasking  of  the 
abominable  intrigue  against  the  world's  peace — when  a 
Russian  revolutionary  presented  himself 

"  Do  you  believe,"  he  asked,  "  that  France  would  allow 
herself  to  be  involved  in  the  war  ?  " 

"  Not  a  bit  of  it— Why  ?  " 

"  Because  in  that  case  it  would  be  advisable  to 
postpone   a    decisive   event    connected    with    the    de- 


12  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

liverance  of  the  Russian  people :  an  event  which  might 
put  an  end  to  the  war." 

"  Your  plan,  then,  is  to  weaken  the  Russian  army  at 
the  front  ?  Briefly,  to  put  a  stop  to  mobilisation  ? 
That's  a  very  difficult  matter." 

"  You  know  the  Yenesei  Bridge  ?  " 

"  Ah  !  I  begin  to  understand.  You  propose  to  blow 
it  up  when  the  ice  breaks.  But  you  would  want  at 
least  two  supports,  and  the  damage  would  be  repaired 
in  a  month." 

"  Thanks  for  the  information  ;  but  there  is  another 
point.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  Plehve 
dominates  the  whole  policy  ?  " 

"  Yes,  certainly,  and  a  good  many  other  things  into 
the  bargain." 

"  Do  you  really  believe  that  he  is  universally 
detested,  even  by  his  colleagues  ?  If  he  fell,  would 
the  system  be  changed  ?  " 

"  They  will  not  permit  his  downfall,  because  besides 
him  there  is  no  one  who  can  carry  on  this  system. 
And  the  system  will  be  maintained,  because  it  is  the 
last  bulwark  of  Tsardom.  In  view  of  the  growing 
indignation,  small  concessions  would  inevitably  lead, 
by  a  natural  development,  to  greater  ones.  It  would 
be  a  snowball — a  repetition  of  the  history  of  France 
from  1789  to  1793.  And  they  know  that.  The  Grand 
Duke  Vladimir  is  an  expert  on  the  subject.  They 
won't  go  off  on  that  tack,  unless  absolutely  com- 
pelled." 

"  Then,  if  Plehve  were  to  disappear,  there  would, 
according  to  you,  be  absolute  chaos,  or  rather,  things 
would  tend  that  way  ?  " 

"Just  so." 

"  This  really  is  your  conviction  ?     You  believe  that 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE     13 

the  Russian  people  are  ripe  to  take  advantage  of  such 
a  situation  ?  " 

"  Yes,  for  they  are  strong  enough  numerically.  But 
they  want  a  stimulus,  a  powerful  incentive.  And  you 
all  believe  that  defeat  in  Manchuria,  on  a  sufficiently 
large  scale,  would  furnish  such  an  incentive." 

"  I  believe,"  he  guardedly  replied,  "  that  if  the  hope  of 
assured  enfranchisement  were  set  before  the  people,  they 
would  be  more  powerfully  attracted  than  by  any  excess 
of  misfortunes." 

"  Obviously  so." 

"  Ah  !  "  he  exclaimed  in  much  excitement.  "  Thank 
you.  That  decides  me.  Plehve  shall  disappear.  Con- 
sider yourself  one  of  the  culprits." 

A  fortnight  later  the  Hotel  du  Nord  at  St.  Petersburg 
was  gutted  by  a  violent  explosion.  A  bomb  that  was 
really  intended  for  Plehve  destroyed  nineteen  innocent 
victims.  The  tragedy  had  its  grotesque  side.  The 
owner  of  the  bomb  had  just  arrived  at  the  hotel,  and, 
leaving  two  portmanteaux  in  his  bedroom,  had  locked 
the  door  and  gone  out  to  dinner.  Thereupon  one  of 
Plehve's  agents,  in  concert  with  the  hall-porter,  who  was 
himself  a  police  officer,  picked  the  lock  and  searched  the 
luggage  of  the  traveller,  who  was  a  suspect.  One  valise 
was  nothing  less  than  the  infernal  machine  itself,  and 
while  the  policeman  was  opening  it,  it  exploded.  The 
entire  quarter  was  agitated.  The  traveller,  who  was 
dining  with  a  friend  on  the  Nevskii  Prospekt  a  short 
distance  off,  heard  the  explosion. 

"Well,"  he  remarked,  "so  much  for  that!  It  has 
missed  fire.  What  idiots  !  We  must  try  again  another 
time." 

He  settled  his  bill  on  pretext  of  going  to  sec  what 
was  happening,  repaired  to  the  railway  station  opposite. 


14  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

and  returned  home — without  paying  for  his  room  at  the 
hotel. 

This  tragi-comic  incident  made  a  far  greater  im- 
pression in  Russia  than  in  Europe — for  in  Russia  the 
Press,  when  it  is  not  paid  to  tell  lies,  is  at  the  mercy 
of  a  Governmental  Press  Bureau.  There  are  in  Russia 
thirteen  millions  of  people  who  can  read,  out  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty  million  inhabitants,  and  among  these 
thirteen  millions  there  was  not  one  who  did  not  instantly 
see  that  this  explosion  was  a  frustrated  attempt  to 
assassinate  Plehve.  To  tell  the  truth — and,  as  the  object 
of  this  work  is  exclusively  to  contribute  to  historic  truth, 
we  must  not  shrink  from  recording  it — the  disappoint- 
ment was  general  throughout  Russia,  Poland,  Finland, 
the  Caucasus,  and  Siberia.  Owing  to  the  extreme 
rigour  of  the  censorship,  the  Press  had  to  invent  curious 
means  of  conveying  this  news.  A  great,  but  by  no 
means  revolutionary,  Journal  in  South  Russia  had  a 
happy  idea  which  was  paraphrased  many  times 
throughout  the  whole  Empire.  "  It  is  inconceivable," 
it  said,  "  that  the  criminal  who  possessed  this  infernal 
machine  should  have  been  guilty  of  the  gross  im- 
prudence of  neglecting  for  a  moment  the  supervision 
of  his  bomb.  Had  he  no  thought  or  care  for  the 
numerous  innocent  victims  of  the  explosion  ?  One 
stands  aghast  at  the  stupidity  of  these  Anarchists." 

The  expression  innocait  victims  evidently  implies  the 
existence  of  a  guilty  victim  ;  the  stupidity  lies  in  the  fact 
of  not  having  known  how  to  time  the  explosion  so  that 
it  might  take  place  at  the  intended  spot.  The  gross 
imprudence  evidently  consisted  in  having  killed  a  score 
of  poor  citizens  instead  of  Plehve,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
denotes  that  the  Journal  was  already  well  aware  that 
the  "  anarchist  "  was  not  there  !     For  a  week,  however, 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE     15 

Plehve  issued  innumerable  despatches  affirming  the 
death  of  the  criminal.  He  even  gave  the  man's 
name,  address,  and  portrait !  At  the  same  time  he 
lost  no  time  in  appropriating  an  extra  80,000  roubles 
(about  ;i6^8,ooo)  for  the  purpose  of  reinforcing  the 
police. 

Too  late!  A  profound  shock  had  passed  through  the, 
people.  All  who  had  silently  anticipated  the  salutary- 
upheaval  speculated  on  what  might  have  been,  if  "  the 
Anarchist  had  been  less  keen  about  his  dinner."  And 
they  were  legion  :  Russian  artisans,  intellectuals,  people 
practising  the  liberal  professions,  Poles,  Little  Russians, 
Finlanders,  Armenians,  Georgians,  even,  though  less 
consciously,  the  mass  of  illiterate  peasants.  Of  course, 
the  Terrorists  were  well  informed  of  the  general  disap- 
pointment, and  were  powerfully  stimulated  by  it.  They 
reorganised  the  enterprise — ^and  avoided  hotels. 

An  automobile  was  purchased — it  is  not  necessary  to 
advertise  the  maker.  It  was  painted  in  the  identical 
colours  of  the  postal  motor-cars  that  collect  letters  from 
the  pillar-boxes  in  St.  Petersburg.  It  proved  an  in- 
valuable auxiliary.  On  the  morning  of  July  28,  Sazonoff 
and  Sikorski,  each  armed  with  a  pyroxyline  bomb,  ap- 
peared opposite  the  Warsaw  Railway  Station.  Presently 
the  swarm  of  police  droskies  arrived  surrounding  the 
carriage-fortress  of  Plehve.  At  that  point,  as  previously 
arranged,  a  postal  motor-van,  going  at  a  high  speed, 
tried  to  intercept  the  procession.  It  stopped  in  the 
midst  of  it.  The  doomed  carriage  stood  still  for  two 
seconds — not  more  ;  at  the  third  it  was  blown  to  atoms, 
together  with  the  man  it  sheltered,  by  the  bomb  hurled 
by  Sazonoff.  The  automobile  made  off  at  full  speed  ; 
the  signal  of  the  Revolution  had  been  given  ! 

In  a  hundred   years'  time  this  episode  will  have  as- 


1 6  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

sumed  the  rank  of  an  historic  act  of  the  first  significance. 
The  consequences  of  the  disappearance  of  this  ill- 
omened  personage  were  greater,  and  also  infinitely  more 
rapid,  than  had  been  anticipated  by  the  most  enthusiastic 
Terrorist.  It  proved  to  be  the  impetus  required  to 
arouse  the  apathetic  masses.  Hope  was  awakened. 
By  a  spasmodic,  almost  instantaneous  impulse,  they 
morally  shook  off  their  yoke,  and  insisted  openly,  in  the 
face  of  the  scared  Autocrat's  spies,  on  the  practical 
execution  of  their  demands. 

From  the  day  of  Plehve's  death  Russia  was  a  changed 
country.  Wonder  of  wonders,  a  Russian  Nation  declared 
its  existence !  Hitherto,  no  one  had  thought  that  it 
existed,  save  as  an  abstract  principle.  Now  it  was 
agitating,  at  least  speaking,  complaining,  telling  its 
hatreds  and  sufferings !  From  that  day,  from  those 
memorable  weeks  in  which  Russia  began  to  live,  from 
those  months  in  which,  behind  the  screen  of  a  corrupt 
Press  which  shut  France  off  with  a  Chinese  Wall  of 
falsehood  and  treachery,  the  friendly  and  allied  Nation 
was  launched  on  the  track  which  France  could  have 
traced  for  her  a  hundred  years  earlier — from  that  period 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  soul  of  Russia  the  face  of  the 
world  was  changed.  For  the  Tsardom,  whose  brilliant 
exterior  of  murderous  omnipotence  had  till  then  dazzled 
even  free  countries — the  Despotism  transmitted  from 
Genghiz  Khan  to  the  Romanoffs,  and  from  the 
Romanoffs  to  the  degenerate,  morbid,  and  ill-fated 
German  dynasty  of  the  Holstein-Gottorps — entered  into 
its  death-agony. 

It  was  a  fact  unique  in  history  !  At  no  time,  whether 
at  the  fall  of  the  Bastille,  or  the  advent  of  Cromwelh 
or  the  defeat  of  the  followers  of  Genghiz  Khan  by  the 
Chinese  peasants,  or  after  the  rout  of  Karkemisk,  where 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE     17 

fell  the  all-powerful  Assyrian  dynasty — at  no  period 
has  any  race  so  promptly  seized  upon  the  profound 
significance  of  external  events  as  did  the  Russians  on 
this  memorable  occasion.  The  reason  is,  that  all  the 
contradictory  occurrences  which  have  staggered  the 
world  since  the  fatal  date,  and  are  explained  by  learned 
commentators  as  the  beginnings  of  the  popular  agita- 
tion, are,  in  reality,  the  outcome  of  it.  The  agitation 
began  twenty-five — fifty  years  ago,  with  Sevastopol. 
The  nationalities  subjected  to  Tsardom  —  Slavs  and 
Turanians — have  all  a  psychology  differing  consider- 
ably from  that  of  the  Latin  nations.  With  them  great 
struggles  are  silent.  Just  as  their  interminable  plains 
are  covered  by  the  wan,  monotonous,  desolate  snows, 
whilst  underneath  the  seeds  are  germinating  throughout 
the  gloomy  winter,  so  the  crushing,  barren,  uniform 
desolation  of  despotism  has  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  the 
outside  world  the  various  phases  of  national  develop- 
ment. According  to  a  well-known  physiologist,  birth 
is  the  most  dangerous  and  difficult  event  of  the  life  of 
an  individual.  The  same  applies  to  the  life  of  a  nation. 
It  is  the  embryonic  existence  that  determines  the  future 
being.  In  the  case  of  Western  nations  it  too  often 
shows  itself  by  futile  external  agitations ;  with  the 
Slavonic  races  it  is  manifested  in  the  developments  of 
consciousness.  This  development,  this  mental  trans- 
formation, which  reached  its  apogee,  and  came  to  light  on 
the  historic  day  of  the  Liberators'  exploit,  is  what  at 
the  present  moment  determines  the  "  Russian  Crisis," 
as  its  well-wishers  call  it  ;  the  "  Russian  Revolution,"  as 
it  is  termed  by  the  Independents. 

This  transformation  of  the  Russian  national  conscience 
under  the  wing  of  despotism,  which  has  been,  and  still 
is,   the    most   astounding  anachronism  of  our  time,  is 

C 


1 8  RUSSIA  FROM   WITHIN 

undoubtedly  the  most  important  phenomenon,  and  the 
most  pregnant  with  results,  that  we  of  these  days  could 
possibly  contemplate.  How  has  it  come  about  ?  To 
what  is  it  tending  ? 

No  psychologist  has  ever  been  able  to  analyse  or 
describe  the  development  of  simple  individual  con- 
sciousness, let  alone  that  of  a  nation.  But  there  are 
roundabout  ways  of  doing  it.  Without  any  theoretical 
demonstration,  and  by  simply  outlining  some  of  the 
innumerable  facts  that  are  accountable  for  this  transform- 
ation, we  may  endeavour  to  interpret  the  latter.  The 
human  mind  is,  fundamentally,  identical  everywhere. 
We  shall  find  ourselves  affected  after  the  same  fashion 
as  the  Tsar's  subjects  if  we  allow  the  material  facts 
to  act  upon  ourselves  in  imagination,  as  in  their 
tangible  form  they  have  influenced  the  numberless 
victims  of  Russian  autocracy. 

The  sum-total  of  these  facts  is  so  vast  that  it  would 
be  useless  to  analyse  it !  In  order  to  give  a  clear  pic- 
ture of  the  general  state  of  things,  we  must  abstract 
some  of  the  more  typical  and  salient  points.  The 
various  classes  of  society,  the  different  channels  of  official 
activity,  will  be  represented  by  their  most  impressive 
actions.  Since  as  a  whole  these  constitute  the  organism 
of  the  Russian  Empire,  the  sum  of  these  detached  facts 
will  give  us  a  fairly  exact  picture  of  the  moral  influences 
to  which  the  Russian  national  consciousness  has  been 
subjected,  and,  consequently,  of  that  transformation 
which  culminated  in  the  Revolution. 

The  Tshr,  the  only  responsible  person,  who  takes  upon 
himself  to  think  and  act  for  his  hundred  and  thirty 
millions  of  subjects  ;  the  Grand  Dukes,  his  relatives  ;  and 
the  whole  train  of  courtiers  who  compose  their  following, 
lewd    parasites,    in    great    request    by    reason    of  their 


THE  ASSASSINATION  OF  PLEHVE     19 

personal  contact  with  the  Autocrat  ;  the  Ministers,  and 
innumerable  army  of  officials — unconscionable  blood- 
suckers, but  none  the  less  the  real  masters  of  the 
Nation  ;  the  people  themselves,  merchants,  peaceable 
townsfolk,  unfortunate  artisans,  innumerable  peasants, 
the  Hite^  the  thinkers,  and  the  revolutionaries :  all  these 
different  elements  must  be  analysed — some  in  their 
triumphs,  others  in   their  sufferings. 

It  is  indeed  impossible  to  observe  the  tide  of  the 
National  Awakening,  hidden  as  it  is  behind  the  impene- 
trable screen  of  the  Censor  and  of  sterile  discussions,  or 
to  appraise  the  chances  of  the  Revolution  and  its  con- 
sequences to  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe  and  Asia, 
without  going  to  the  source  of  the  present  chaos, 
and  piecing  together  from  the  mosaic  of  small  historic 
events  the  general  picture  of  the  economic  and  political 
conditions  created  by  the  Tsar's  regime^  and  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  national  consciousness  towards  the  destruction 
of  Tsardom. 

We  may  laugh  at  these  facts,  in  order  not  to  weep  over 
them.  And  laughing  we  give  precedence  to  those  who 
claim  it :  to  the  Reigning  Dynasty  of  Degenerates  and 
Fools,  along  with  their  servile  flunkeys. 


C    2 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT 

In  the  Russian  Revolution,  which  is  now  beginning, 
as  in  the  Muscovite  Despotism,  which  is  in  its  death- 
throes,  everything  gravitates  round  the  individual  who 
claims  to  be,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  symbol  and 
the  dictator  of  all  spiritual  and  political  authority. 
The  Revolution  depends  in  great  measure  in  its  course, 
as  well  as  in  its  chances,  upon  this  personage,  himself 
an  anachronism,  who  theoretically  claims  omnipotence, 
while  in  reality  he  is  merely  the  fulcrum  of  a  caste  of 
tyrants.  It  is  only  by  attacking  the  Tsar  that  the 
ruling  party  can  be  defeated,  and  this  caste  accord- 
ingly plays  upon  the  Tsar  to  serve  its  own  petty  ends 
of  self-protection. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  "  Tsar "  ?  Originally  a 
simple  error  in  spelling,  "  C'sar,"  for  "  Caesar,"  it  has 
become  an  elegant  euphemism,  a  high-sounding  title 
screening  the  degeneracy  of  certain  individuals  who 
strut  about  in  the  muck-heaps  of  a  foul  regime. 
Between  these  two  extremes  Tsardom  has  been  a  very 
tangible  brute  force,  based  on  the  powerful  interests  of 
certain  groups  of  tyrants,  who  are  incapable  of  maintain- 
ing themselves  without  the  illusive  symbol  of  a  central 
despotism.  The  Tsar,  in  short,  has  ever  been  the  product 
and  the  instigator  of  moral  corruption. 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    21 

Even  his  title  is  only  a  corruption  of  the  Latin, 
Caesar !  And  the  adoption  of  this  title  was  merely  a 
false  pretence — a  vain  attempt  to  prove  that  a  petty 
Asiatic  despot  reigning  at  Moscow  was  the  direct 
inheritor  of  the  Byzantine  Empire !  The  introduction 
of  the  famous  double-headed  eagle  was  but  a  larceny 
perpetrated  on  the  Byzantine  dynasty  after  it  had  suc- 
cumbed to  the  Ottoman  invasion.  Since  their  inglorious 
entry  into  the  political  history  of  the  world  the  Tsars 
have  been  supreme  for  three  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
years,  and  their  methods  have  not  altered.  Their 
"  dynastic  credit "  has  steadily  waxed  fat  on  falsehood, 
and  the  mental  attitude  of  the  "  great  families  "  is  that  of 
breeders  of  racehorses.  Position  is  appraised  only  by 
length  of  pedigree,  no  matter  of  what  order.  A  Russian 
Grand  Duchess  will  not  shake  hands  with  a  workman, 
but  she  embraces  her  poodle.  "  I  cannot  understand 
such  love  for  a  dog,"  observed  Her  Highness's  doctor. 
"  Why,"  she  replied,  "  I  can  follow  his  pedigree  through 
twenty  generations — it  is  perfect !  " 

Since  a  mass  of  people  with  defective  brains  still  look 
upon  the  lengthy  pedigree  of  a  dynasty  as  a  reason  for 
respecting  it,  and  as  a  proof  of  historic  right,  we  will 
oppose  to  Nicholas  II.,  the  resplendent  scion  of  a  noble 
race,  the  picture  of  Nicholas  II.,  the  ultimate  product 
of  an  insignificant  family  of  degenerates.  The  official 
genealogy  of  the  Tsar  goes  back  to  a  Norman  King 
named  Rurik,  who,  in  the  tenth  century,  conquered  a 
part  of  Russia ;  but  this  story  is  in  the  last  degree 
apocryphal.  The  Ruriks  had  just  time  to  steal  the  title 
of  Tsar  and  the  escutcheon  of  the  eagle  from  the  Lower 
Empire.  Then  they  vanished.  After  an  interregnum 
of  thirty  years  the  Muscovite  landowners  elected  from 
among  themselves  a  Tsar  of  the  name  of  Romanoff. 


22  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

This  was  a  brilliant  inspiration,  since  this  dynasty,  by 
its  murders,  wars,  and  treasons,  created  the  Russian 
Autocracy.  With  the  children  of  Peter  the  Great  this 
dynasty  also  became  extinct ;  it  had  lasted  exactly  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years — from  1613  to  1762.  A  kins- 
man of  the  Romanoffs,  Duke  Peter  Ulrich  of  Holstein- 
Gottorp-Oldenburg,  next  had  the  luck  to  mount  the 
Russian  throne.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  reigning 
family,  which  has  not  hesitated  to  usurp  the  title  of 
Romanoff,  just  as  the  Ruriks  had  usurped  that  of 
Caesar. 

This  dynasty  was,  and  still  is,  purely  German.  Under 
its  rule,  German  ideas,  methods,  statesmen  and  habits 
have  dominated  Russia.  For  a  long  time  the  Russians 
themselves  retained  a  vivid  recollection  of  their  older 
rulers.  In  the  south,  among  the  Ruthenians,  who  were 
reduced  to  serfdom  by  their  new  Tsars,  after  enjoying  a 
Republican  constitution,  it  still  persists.  "  Oh  !  for  a 
Dolgoroki  or  a  Miloradovitch  !  What  good  Tsars  they 
were  !  At  any  rate,  they  were  Russians  ! "  is  the  cry 
still  heard  in  the  villages  of  Little  Russia.  Or  they  jest 
about  the  nationality  of  the  rulers  who  now  oppress 
them,  and  say,  "In  Russia,  who  are  Germans  ?  The 
Officials.  Who  besides  ?  The  Professors.  Who  else  ? 
The  Rich  People.  And  who  next  ?  The  Generals.  And 
then  ?  The  Ministers.  And  lastly  ?  The  Tsar." 
They  generally  add  that  the  P'rench  are  less  important : 
they  only  provide  the  dancing  masters,  cooks,  barbers, 
and — denii-mondaincs.  But  the  survival  of  the  idea 
underlying  these  bucolic  jokes  is  significant  ;  the  more 
so  as  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  who  nominated  the  Duke 
of  Holstein-Gottorp  heir  to  the  throne,  was  hardly  as 
lucky  in  her  choice  as  the  electors  of  Michael  Romanoff 
in  161 3.     She  bestowed  on  Russia  a  dynasty  of  fools  ! 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    23 

Peter  III.  and  Paul  I. 

The  founder  of  the  new  dynasty  was  afflicted  not  only 
with  an  extremely  ambitious  wife,  a  German  like 
himself,  but  also  with  dropsy  complicated  by  brain 
disease  brought  on  by  alcoholic  excess.  He  unfortu- 
nately transmitted  these  blemishes  to  his  son  by  the 
Empress  Catherine,  prior  to  her  devotion  to  her  various 
lovers.  Paul  I.,  heir  to  the  throne,  was  as  legitimate  as 
he  was  epileptic.  The  profound  physical  and  moral 
degeneration  of  the  ancestor  to  whom  Nicholas  II.  owes 
the  equivocal  good  fortune  of  occupying  the  Russian 
throne,  was  so  revolting  that  Catherine  bribed  the 
brothers  Orloff  by  her  choicest  favours  to  assassinate 
him.  They  easily  delivered  her  from  a  husband  of 
whom  it  is  said  that  his  rubicund  countenance  lit  up 
with  an  idiotic  grin  when  the  arrival  of  the  conspirators, 
at  the  head  of  several  regiments,  was  announced  to  him. 
During  the  reign  of  Catherine  the  Great,  Princess  of 
Anhalt,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  the  spurious  Romanoff 
Paul,  had  leisure  to  develop  both  his  stupidity  and  his 
epilepsy.  When,  at  last,  he  came  to  exercise  a  power 
from  which  the  alienists  ought  for  ever  to  have  debarred 
him,  he  managed,  between  his  fits,  to  commit  such  a 
succession  of  follies,  such  monstrous  political  and 
judicial  abuses,  such  incoherent  actions  in  his  cerebral 
decay,  that  his  sujj])ression  became  a  necessity  to  the 
weal  of  the  public.  The  act  of  i:)urification  was  acccjm- 
plished  by  the  madman's  Councillors,  with  the  know- 
ledge of  his  eldest  son,  the  "  gentle  idealist,"  Alex- 
ander I.  The  truth  is  that  the  Imperial  grandmother 
regarded  her  son,  Paul,  as  such  an  absolute  imbecile, 
that  she  had  ruled  him  out  of  the  Succession  in  favour  of 
her  grandson.     The  official   Act  to  this  effect  as  drawn 


24  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

up  by  Catherine  was  actually  submitted  to  Alexander  by 
Prince  Biezborodski,  but  Paul,  who  required  an  unlimited 
field  of  action  during  his  attacks  of  dementia,  had  seized 
a  favourable  moment  to  rescind  it. 

Alexander  I. 

Alexander  I.,  whose  father  and  mother  were  Germans, 
was,  in  addition  to  the  megalomania  inherited  from  his 
grandmother,  Catherine,  endowed  with  the  critical  spirit 
of  the  "  nation  of  thinkers  and  dreamers."  He  un- 
doubtedly believed  that  he  was  contributing  to  the 
ultimate  recovery  of  his  father  by  conniving  at  his 
assassination.  Unfortunately  he  inherited  the  epileptic 
tendencies  of  the  dynasty,  as  exhibited  in  the  two  typical 
forms  of  intellectual  weakness  which  constitute  the  red 
thread  in  the  history  of  the  Holstein-Gottorps — amnesia 
and  a  characteristic  mysticism.  These  two  hereditary  de- 
fects, added  to  his  megalomania,  dominated  the  glorious 
reign  of  Alexander  I.  He  abounded  in  incoherent 
expressions  and  in  tears  ;  savage  and  sentimental  by 
turns,  he  took  refuge  in  mystical  inspiration  whenever 
his  excitable  brain  went  off  its  balance.  He  would 
have  approved  himself  a  veritable  puppet  on  the  throne, 
if  the  ominous  grandeur  of  Napoleon  had  not.  during 
the  greater  part  of  his  reign,  obliged  his  Councillors  to 
follow  a  certain  well-defined  course  of  action.  Even 
thus,  the  confusion  whenever  the  Tsar's  personal  decision 
was  inevitable,  was  extreme.  He  wept,  not  with  grief, 
but  from  joy,  when  he  heard  of  Napoleon's  victories, 
like  a  megalomaniac  affected  by  the  notes  of  the  Sinfonia 
Eroica.  He  wept  again  on  the  day  Napoleon  captured 
Oldenburg,  the  cradle  of  the  "  Russian  "  dynasty,  but 
this  time  over  a  letter  from  the  dispossessed  Grand  Duke, 
availing  himself  of  family  ties  to  implore  assistance.   The 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    25 

ties  of  vitiated  blood  appealed  to  him  ;  in  twenty-four 
hours  he  became  as  bitter  an  enemy  of  the  Corsican  as 
he  had  hitherto  been  his  admirer.  A  flow  of  tears 
changed  history !  He  left  it  to  his  Generals  and 
Ministers  to  clear  up  the  situation.  When  the  French 
epic  was  concluded,  and  the  reign  of  unavoidable  necessi- 
ties done  away  with,  the  hybrid  soul  of  the  Sovereign  could 
stretch  its  wings.  His  mysticism  now  became  apparent 
— and  such  mysticism  !  It  consisted  in  appealing  to  the 
superhuman  whenever  his  own  mind  was  at  some  morbid 
impasse.  Under  the  influence  of  certain  ancient  female 
devotees,  the  Tsar,  who  had  been  afflicted  with  senile 
decay  since  his  fiftieth  year,  constituted  himself  the 
prophet  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  His  decadence  is  easily 
explained.  This  man,  who  had  been  unable  to  beget  a 
legitimate  heir,  had  managed,  as  one  of  his  ministers 
observed,  "  to  add  at  least  eight  hundred  bastards  to  the 
population  of  Poland."  His  amnesia  led  him  into 
mysticisms,  which  gradually  induced  the  habit  of  re- 
course to  magical  arts,  to  supplement  his  own  mental 
deficiencies.  The  despotic  manifestations  of  this  folly  at 
last  became  so  unbearable  that  radical  measures  were 
again  imperative.  The  Tsar  died  of  a  "  certain  fever," 
familiar  to  the  Borgias  ! 

Nicholas  I. 

The  throne  should  have  reverted  to  his  brother 
Constantine.  It  was  hoped  that  this  would  happen, 
since  he  had  been  endowed  by  his  father  with  a  mental 
weakness  so  complete  that  it  was  with  the  greatest 
possible  effort  that  he  ate  his  meals  decently,  even  at 
official  banquets.  Unfortunately,  Alexander  obliged 
him  to  abdicate  in  favour  of  the  third  brother,  Nicholas, 
who  was  not  only  afflicted  with  amnesia,  hallucinations 


26  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

of  persecution,  epileptic  fits,  and  irresistible  attacks  of 
cruelty  to  animals,  but  also  suffered  from  a  megalomania 
resembling  that  of  the  Chinese  Boxers.  This  was 
manifested  in  his  faith  in  his  own  invulnerability,  and 
an  appearance  of  energy  which  deceived  his  entourage. 
These  different  qualities  combined  to  create  a  regime 
of  the  worst  oppression  ever  known,  with  a  superposed 
system  of  unparalleled  jobbery. 

"  What,  blockhead  !  "  he  said  in  a  towering  rage  to 
Fraenkel,  the  financier,  who,  like  himself,  was  a  German, 
"  you  complain  that  the  tax-collectors  rob  the  Treasury  ? 
You  mustn't  stop  them  !  Don't  you  see  that  as  long  as 
they  can  thieve,  they  will  love  the  Tsar,  and  defend 
him  against  subversive  intrigues  ?" 

In  conjunction  with  peculation,  he  considered  science 
the  best  support  of  his  morbid  omnipotence.  He 
remarked  one  day  to  the  Orientalist,  Schmidt  (also,  of 
course,  a  German),  who  had  translated  and  commented 
on  the  Buddhist  texts  of  Tibet,  and  was  requesting  the 
Tsar  to  have  the  work  printed  at  his  expense  : — "  Herr 
Schmidt,  by  all  means  go  on  translating  ;  but  it  will  be 
for  me,  I  think,  to  decide  whether  in  this  work  ('The  Wise 
Man  and  the  Fool ')  the  role  of  '  wise  man '  is  assigned 
to  one  who  makes  a  practice  of  principles  identical  with 
those  of  my  Government  ;  the  Minister  of  Police  (!) 
shall  submit  to  me  a  report  upon  the  scientific  value  of 
this  work." 

This  narrow-mindedness  naturally  culminated  in 
disaster,  as  a  result  of  systematic  dishonesty,  systematic 
ignorance,  and  the  suppression  of  all  initiative.  Sevas- 
topol was  the  end.  The  general  incapacity,  and  the 
fraudulency  of  those  days,  were  absolutely  identical 
with  what  is  now  going  on  in  Manchuria ;  and  it  is, 
therefore,  superfluous  to  describe    them.     But  what   is 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    27 

interesting — although  not  yet  repeated  at  Port  Arthur 
— was  the  sudden  and  mysterious  death  of  Nicholas  I., 
— "  of  a  broken  heart,"  said  the  official  historians  ;  "  of 
a  nervous  attack,"  pretended  the  courtiers  ;  "  of  a 
paroxysm  of  madness,"  according  to  the  doctors  ;  whilst 
others  hinted  that  the  cause  of  death  was  really  "  an 
overdose  of  nux  vomica " — the  inference  being  that 
they  had  made  ready  the  potion. 

Alexander  II. 

With  Nicholas'  son,  Alexander  II., — the  Great,  the 
Liberator,  —  this  dynasty  of  pathological  specimens 
enters,  so  to  speak,  the  contemporary  period.  A  German, 
of  course,  on  both  his  father's  and  his  mother's  side,  he 
had  inherited  not  only  all  the  vices  of  the  Holstein- 
Gottorps,  but  also — an  especially  serious  matter  in  an 
Autocrat  surrounded  by  a  coterie  of  brutes  invested 
with  absolute  power, — the  undefined  idealism  of  Louise, 
his  Prussian  grandmother.  Perhaps  this  accounted  for 
the  grievous  metamorphosis  to  the  sexual  exuberance  of 
the  epileptic,  which,  from  his  youth  upwards,  distin- 
guished him  from  his  stalwart  uncle,  Alexander  I.  P'rom 
the  age  of  eighteen,  according  to  official  records,  his 
general  health  was  greatly  strained  by  his  excesses. 
Travel  and  amusements  availed  him  little.  "  His 
health  improved  only  in  old  age."  The  pursuit  of  non- 
existent ideals  dominated  his  policy,  as  well  as  his 
{)rivate  life  :  everything  moved  him  deeply,  "  owing  to 
the  disproportion  between  the  reality  and  his  concep- 
tions." He  was  ever,  to  use  the  expression  of  his  friends, 
"  the  whimpering  Tsar."  He  made  up  for  his  want  of 
understanding  by  the  strength  of  his  emotions. 

The  latter  would  sometimes  lead  him  to  humane 
theories,   but    since   on    each     occasion    his    incapacity 


28  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

obliged  him  to  let  them  be  carried  out  by  individuals 
who  had  every  interest  in  continuing  the  evil  system  of 
Nicholas  I.,  not  one  of  his  just  reforms  ever  came  into 
being.  The  abolition  of  serfdom,  conceived  after 
Sevastopol  in  a  moment  when  a  sense  of  bitter  remorse 
(which  his  father  should  have  felt)  constrained  him  to 
seek  inspiration  in  Biblical  sources,  resulted  only  in  the 
creation  of  a  fresh,  and  even  more  terrible,  thraldom. 
For  the  same  reason,  the  "  great  reforms  of  the  sixties," 
which  he  had  planned,  but  did  not  know  how  to  organise, 
ended  in  a  farce  which  exasperated  the  more  intelligent 
of  his  subjects.  For  this  reason,  also,  when  he  saw  the 
failure  of  his  enterprises,  the  Sovereign  fell  from  one  fit 
of  depression  into  another,  believing  himself  meanwhile 
to  be  a  misunderstood  genius.  His  acrimony  grew  in 
proportion  as  the  amnesia  from  which  he  suffered,  like 
his  ancestors,  precluded  him  from  the  possibility  of  con- 
trolling (as  he  would  have  wished,  and  as  he  imagined 
himself  doing)  the  execution  of  his  vague  notions  of 
reform,  impossible  because  incompatible  with  the 
principle  of  his  Divine  authority,  which  he  still  clung  to. 
His  lackeys  understood  him  better  than  he  did  himself. 
They  acted  in  the  spirit  of  Nicholas  I.,  and  played  the 
comedy  on  the  lines  of  Alexander  II. 

The  result  was  the  complete  unsettling  of  the  organi- 
sation of  the  Empire,  and  still  more  of  the  Emperor's 
mind.  Nihilism  sprang  up  naturally  from  the  contradic- 
tion existing  between  mystical  intentions  and  despotic 
actions.  Nihilism,  which  is  the  exasperation  of  intellects 
at  bay,  induced  the  afflicted  Emperor,  who  had  become 
mentally  a  mere  wastrel,  to  assume  the  character  of  a 
misunderstood  benefactor  vindicating  himself  for  his 
good  intentions.  This  phase  created  what  is  known  as 
the  "  white  terror."     Repeated  attempts  on  his  life  threw 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    29 

him  back  on  the  idealism  of  a  martyr,  and  absolute 
incoherence  henceforth  influenced  his  decisions.  The 
fear  of  what  might  happen  from  without,  the  fear  of  his 
own  ideas,  reduced  him,  if  one  may  venture  the  expres- 
sion, to  the  condition  of  an  animal  hunted  by  itself. 
His  incoherence  transmitted  itself  to  the  State.  Russia 
passed  through  a  period  of  tension  and  of  melancholy 
trouble  as  unbearable  as  the  evil  which  was  sapping 
the  mind  of  her  master.  Dictatorship  and  constitution 
were  decided  on  one  and  the  same  day.  "  Broken  by 
emotion,  the  Emperor  withdrew  from  everything,"  said 
the  official  records  :  they  forgot  to  add  that  the  country, 
also  "  broken  by  emotion,"  experienced  the  agonies  of 
uncertainty.  The  situation  was  alike  intolerable  for 
oppressors  and  oppressed.  The  former,  eager  for  any 
change,  assisted  Nihilism,  which  was  excited  by  the 
same  appetite.  Between  them  both,  they  succeeded,  on 
the  one  hand  by  making  bombs,  on  the  other  by 
voluntary  indifference  to  the  danger.  The  poor  patient, 
the  only  one  out  of  the  interminable  degenerate  off- 
spring of  Paul  III.  who  deserves  sympathy,  at  last 
succumbed  to  his  vices.  Like  Faust,  "  Two  souls 
pos.sessed  his  breast."  They  stultified  each  other  and 
the  fatal  result  of  his  psychical  efforts  could  only  abut 
in  annihilation.  Despite  his  poetical  flights — which  he 
believed  to  be  in  the  interests  of  his  policy — despite  the 
morbid  exaltation,  and,  so  to  speak,  virginal  sensitiveness 
of  his  exhausted  brain,  Alexander  II.,  having  governed 
in  a  vicious  circle,  was  obliged  to  leave  Russia  where 
his  father,  by  his  transports  of  brutality,  had  placed  her. 

Alexander  III. 

The  next  generation  evinces  a  phase  of  degeneracy 
which  too  often  precedes   the  ultimate  extinction  of  an 


30  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

epileptic  stock.  Tuberculosis,  with  all  its  ill-starred 
influences  on  the  vitality  of  the  brain — extreme  exalta- 
tion of  erotomania,  sudden  alternations  from  absolute 
apathy  to  violent  effort,  unexpected  and  illogical  chains 
of  thought,  associations  of  bizarre  and  too  swift  ideas, 
the  special  form  of  amnesia  which  effaces  the  inter- 
mediate links  between  the  first  vague  notion  in  a  train 
of  thought  and  the  same  idea  in  its  final  development, 
lastly,  the  morbid  sensibility  which  at  each  moment 
interrupts  these  already  abnormal  processes,  and  substi- 
tutes incoherency  of  emotional  impressions  for  reason- 
ing— the  whole  clinical  schedule  of  a  tuberculous 
psychosis  revealed  itself,  and  has  never  since  abandoned 
the  dynasty.  The  eldest  son  of  Alexander  II.  died  of 
consumption  at  an  age  when  the  second  son  was  too  old 
to  efface  from  his  mind  the  deep  traces  of  a  depressing 
education,  shrewdly  conceived  with  the  view  of  depriv- 
ing him  of  any  idea  that  might  have  incited  him  to 
covet  or  defy  Imperial  authority.  His  natural  and 
already  morbid  timidity  had  been  developed  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  convert  it  into  an  habitual  terror.  He 
had  been  kept  aloof  from  that  knowledge  of  the  world 
which  is  so  indispensable  to  all  who  are  destined  to 
shine  at  a  sumptuous  Court.  When  he  suddenly  be- 
came heir  to  the  throne,  his  mental  attitude,  habits, 
and  knowledge  were  irredeemably  warped.  And  to 
this  defect,  cultivated  by  his  parents,  and  still  more 
so  by  his  tutors  (the  principal  of  whom  was  Pobie- 
donostseff,  now  Procurator  of  the  Synod),  were  added 
all  the  blemishes  of  hereditary  tuberculosis  !  Alexander 
HI.,  when  he  came  to  the  throne,  was  sometimes 
afraid  of  his  own  shadow,  sometimes  violent  to  excess. 
Owing  to  absolute  ignorance  of  the  affairs  he  was  sup- 
posed to  direct,  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  whosoever  knew 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    31 

how  to  take  advantage  of  the  right  moment,  whether 
during  his  moods  of  depression  or  of  passion.  The 
death  of  his  father  left  him  in  a  lamentable  state  of 
moral  confusion.  His  religious  emotions  threw  him 
at  first  into  a  phase  of  morbid  contrition  ;  he  looked 
upon  the  murder  of  his  father  as  a  sort  of  atonement, 
since  without  the  Will  of  God  the  crime  would  have  been 
impossible.  He  submitted  this  matter  of  conscience  to 
his  spiritual  father,  Pobiedonostseff,  who,  it  afterwards 
transpired,  was  alarmed  at  the  unexpected  result  of  his 
tuition.  The  dictator,  Loris  Melikoff,  however,  confirmed 
the  Tsar  in  his  humility.  When  he  appeared  at  the  first 
official  Family  Council  he  announced  to  the  horrified 
Grand  Dukes,  trembling  with  emotion,  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  promulgate  the  Constitution  signed  by  his 
father,  "  because  " — an  unexpected  expression  from  the 
mouth  of  a  Tsar — "  he  shrank  from  the  formidable  task 
of  governing  the  nation  by  himself."  His  brothers, 
Vladimir,  Alexis,  and  Serge,  who  feared  that  with 
Autocracy  the  possibility  of  enjoying  their  morbid 
passions  with  impunity  would  also  pass  away,  put  their 
heads  together  to  defeat  the  purpose  of  their  Imperial 
brother.  The  first  discussion  threw  the  Tsar  into  a  fearful 
fit  of  rage  and  terror  at  seeing  himself  dominated  by  his 
brothers.  He  demanded  the  right  of  humility  !  Pobie- 
donostseff was  sent  for  post-haste  ;  there  was  a  tearful, 
touching  scene,  and  a  promise  to  seek  light  by  prayer. 
The  Terrorists  despatched  a  letter  announcing  a  truce 
of  three  months  from  any  hostile  attempts,  to  allow  him 
time  to  promulgate  the  Constitution.  This  was  the 
chance  of  salvation  ! 

At  the  moment  of  the  outrage  the  all-important  docu- 
ment had  been  on  the  Emperor's  desk  at  the  palace.  At 
the  second  Family  Council,  the  dictator,  Loris  Melikoff, 


32  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

and  Alexander  III.  carried  the  day,  and  declared  that  it 
was  their  duty,  in  view  of  the  general  ebullition,  and  clearly 
expressed  popular  feeling,  to  give  immediate  effect  to 
the  projects  of  the  murdered  Sovereign  ;  moreover, 
since  the  document  had  been  signed  it  was  theoretically 
valid  in  law.  Terrorism  was  verging  upon  a  practical 
issue  :  Loris  Melikoff  subsequently  admitted  this  fact  in 
conversation,  and  it  was,  moreover,  personally  confirmed 
by  the  Grand  Duke  Constantine.  But  the  man  who 
was  reactionary  to  the  back-bone — Plehve,  the  young 
Chief  of  the  Secret  Police — was  on  the  watch.  An 
event  of  this  nature  would  have  stopped  his  career — his 
sinister  detective  activity  would  have  been  put  out  of 
court  by  the  introduction  of  a  form  of  government 
involving  responsibilities  towards  an  authority  controlled 
by  the  nation. 

The  letter  which  the  Nihilist  party  had  addressed  to 
the  Tsar  after  the  outrage  contained  this  passage : 
"Confident  of  the  high  intelligence  and  wisdom  of  the 
Emperor,  and  assured  of  the  inauguration  of  a  Consti- 
tution, the  Party  is  suspending  all  terrorist  action  for  the 
space  of  three  months,  pending  the  necessary  reforms, 
but  is  ready  to  resume  action  after  the  delay  accorded." 

Plehve  got  possession  of  this  letter,  and  obtaining  an 
immediate  audience  induced  the  Tsar  to  believe  that 
it  was  merely  an  expression  of  weakness  on  the  part  of 
the  Nihilists.  "If  they  were  sufficiently  strong  to  pro- 
ceed," said  he,  "  they  would  not  for  a  moment  hesitate 
to  plan  fresh  outrages.  The  ultimatum  appears  to  me 
to  prove  that  the  mov^ement  can  still  be  suppressed." 
The  advice  of  the  police  officer  forthwith  prevailed  with 
the  malleable  Emperor  over  that  of  the  Dictator 
himself. 

The  simple  word  "  ultimatum  "  changed  the  situation. 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    33 

Loris  Melikoff  has  related  how  the  Tsar  burst  into 
an  uncontrollable  fit  of  laughter :  contrition  had 
given  place  to  anger.  They  were  insulting  him  :  they 
were  insulting  God !  He  must  have  vengeance  :  the 
relentless,  morbid  vengeance  of  a  tuberculous  and 
sexually  perverted  invalid.  Plehve  was  then  and  there 
ordered  to  hunt  out  the  Nihilists,  vested  with  the  fullest 
plenipotential  powers.  Then  the  Emperor  dressed  in 
full  uniform  ;  and  within  an  hour,  to  the  extreme  dis- 
comfiture of  the  Dictator,  he  made  a  blatant  speech  at 
the  third  Council,  emphasised  by  sharp  thrusts  of  his 
sword  on  the  floor,  announcing  that  "  His  Divine  duty 
commanded  him  to  maintain  the  immutable  principle 
of  Autocracy  intact,  whatever  happened!"  The  Tsar 
superciliously  accepted  the  felicitations  of  his  relatives, 
tolerated  the  unctuous  approbation  of  Pobiedonostseff, 
and  then  retired,  to  collapse  in  a  fearful  attack  of 
nerves.  It  was  on  such  incoherencies  and  suggesti- 
bility, such  alternations  of  rage  and  depression,  that 
the  fate  of  one  of  the  greatest  Empires  of  the  world 
depended. 

This  fit  of  frantic  energy  had  disappeared  by  the  fol- 
lowing day  :  Alexander  HI.  left  the  control  of  affairs  to 
the  high  bureaucracy  thus  thoughtlessly  launched  ujjon 
a  regime  o{  oppression  from  which,  in  sheer  terror  of  being 
accused  of  weakness,  he  no  longer  dared  draw  back.  This, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  was  the  golden  age  of  bureau- 
crats, e.xtortioners,  and  lawlessness.  robicdonostseff 
was  the  true  Regent,  and  the  Tsaritsa's  Danish  acute- 
ness  saw  no  security  for  the  dynasty,  in  view  of  her 
husband's  incapacity,  save  in  the  uncontrolled  activity 
of  these  bureaucrats,  who  at  least  knew  what  they  were 
about.  Alexander  HI.  was  soon  relegated  to  the  posi- 
tion of  a  mere  machine  for  signing  documents.     He  even 

D 


34  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

kept  aloof  from  his  relatives  :  his  wife,  who  professed 
boundless  affection  for  him,  and  who  alone  had  any 
direct  influence,  limited  her  efforts  to  inducing  him  to 
avoid  the  emotions  involved  for  a  hated  Autocrat  in  his 
obligations  to  take  part  in  the  Government.  Shut  up 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  year  in  the  Palace  of  Gatshina 
— a  fortress-castle  such  as  one  reads  of  in  the  penny- 
dreadful,  with  complicated  passages,  mysterious  corridors, 
trap-doors  designed  to  do  away  with  unsuspected 
intruders,  dark  closets,  and  mediaeval  outlets — Alex- 
ander III.  and  his  eldest  son  more  often  occupied  them- 
selves in  felling  trees  in  the  park  than  in  governing  the 
country. 

In  evidence  of  this  we  have  the  Grand  Duke  Con- 
stantine's  story.  Hastening  back  from  a  prolonged 
journey  to  salute  his  cousin,  and  inform  him  of  the 
prestige  he  enjoyed  in  foreign  parts,  he  was  informed 
on  arriving  at  Gatshina  that  His  Majesty  was  in  the 
Park.  Accordingly  he  repaired  thither,  and  discovered 
the  Autocrat  of  All  the  Russias  in  a  wood,  axe  in  hand, 
in  his  shirt-sleeves,  hacking  furiously  at  the  trunk  of  a 
fir-tree.  The  resigned  manner  in  which  the  Tsar 
welcomed  the  Grand  Duke  contrasted  so  strongly  with 
the  agreeable  things  he  had  intended  to  say  to  him  that 
the  Duke  kept  silence.  "  Does  that  surprise  you  ? " 
asked  the  Tsar,  pointing  to  his  hatchet. 

"  Well,  for  a  Tsar " 

"  So  far  as  I  can  see,  this  is  all  I  can  do  until  the 
Nihilists  are  wiped  out." 

It  is  the  Grand  Duke  who  tells  the  story.  And  it 
was  thus  that  the  sinister  terrors  of  the  Tsar  were  utilised 
by  the  unscrupulous  caste  that  had  usurped  his 
authority. 

The  Grand  Dukes  themselves,  whether  Conservatives 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    35 

like  Vladimir  and  Serge,  or  Liberals  like  Constantine, 
suffered  both  materially  and  morally  from  this  bizarre 
situation,  since  they  found  themselves  placed  thereby  at 
the  mercy  of  the  bureaucrats  who  governed  in  the 
Tsar's  place.  Vladimir  unceasingly  upbraided  the 
Emperor  for  his  want  of  energy,  and  the  general  irrita- 
tion found  vent  in  harsh  words,  even  in  the  presence  of 
strangers.  In  1883,  Vladimir  exclaimed  at  a  grand 
fete,  "  He  will  never  do  anything,  his  terror  is  quite 
ridiculous.  He  ought  to  trim  the  road  all  the  way  from 
St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow  with  gibbets,  each  orna- 
mented by  a  Nihilist.  He  hasn't  even  the  pluck  to 
defend  himself" 

The  Grand  Duke  had,  and  still  has,  good  reason  for 
his  ill-humour.  With  him  the  hereditary  vices  had 
assumed  a  less  terrible  form,  physiologically  speaking  ; 
he  was  merely  afflicted  with  a  complete  absence  of 
moral  sense,  and  an  irresistible  penchant  for  drink  and 
gambling.  Moreover,  he  had  two  sons,  Cyril  and 
Boris,  with  comparatively  strong  constitutions  ;  and 
he  hoped  that  one  of  these  would  some  day  inherit 
the  succession  from  Alexander  HI.,  whose  three  sons 
were  all  invalids,  one,  Nicholas  H.,  being  epileptic,  and 
the  other  two  tuberculous.  The  Grand  Duke's  interest 
in  the  energetic  maintenance  of  absolute  autocracy  at 
all  costs  is  therefore  thoroughly  explained  ;  and  his 
anger  with  Alexander  HI. — who  was,  in  his  opinion, 
culpably  neglecting  his  duties  as  Tsar — resulted  from 
vexation  at  seeing  the  Imperial  powers  s(|uandered. 

The  Monarch,  becoming  more  and  more  of  a  dullard, 
implicitly  obeyed  his  oitourage,  and  even  listened,  with- 
out flinching,  to  the  "  Marseillaise,"  whose  strains  had 
formerly  reminded  him  of  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI. 
At  length,  when  his  moral  and  {)hysical  health  was  com- 

D   2 


36  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

pletely  vitiated,  the  trouble  which  had  lain  dormant  for 
forty  years  asserted  itself  The  Tsar,  a  colossal  wreck 
like  his  Empire,  succumbed  to  miliary  tuberculosis. 

The  Psychology  of  Nicholas  II. 

The  astounding  pathological  history  of  the  Holstein- 
Gottorp  dynasty  in  last  resort  explains  the  entire  crisis 
by  which  Russia  is  agitated.  In  a  country  in  which  the 
Dynastic  Head  is  supposed  to  be  both  brain  and  arm  of  the 
Nation — not  without  further  usurping  its  digestive  func- 
tions— all  morbid  conditions  in  the  Sovereign  tend  neces- 
sarily to  State  disorganisation  and  degeneration.  This  fact 
alone  can  account  for  the  unparalleled  disorder  to  which 
Russia  has  sunk  ;  and  this  alone  explains  the  singular 
attitude  of  the  Ruler  who  is  in  all  probability  destined 
to  preside  over  the  final  downfall  of  Muscovite  Autocracy. 

Nicholas  is  onJy^hej:limaxof  centuries  ojjlegenera^^ 
The  frightful  heredity  that  weighs  on  him  would 
have  given  anyone  but  a  Sovereign — whose  prestige  is 
his  only  strength — the  right  to  a  quiet  retreat,  far  from 
political  cares  and  the  intellectual  exigencies  of  modern 
Society,  far,  above  all,  from  the  tremendous  responsibility 
of  autocracy,  which  makes  the  Tsar  the  only  man  out  of 
130,000,000  human  beings  who  has  the  privilege — if 
such  it  be — of  bringing  his  acts  into  harmony  with  his 
conscience.  The  misfortune  has  been — both  for  himself 
and  for  the  whole  world — that  he  was  left  in  a  position 
which  he  would  at  once  relinquish  if  he  vvere  at  liberty  to 
do  so.  .^  The  mental  content  of  Nicholas  II.  is  a  mere 
figure  of  speech ;  from  his  earliest  youth  his  tutors 
were  well  aware  of  the  fact.  One  of  his  military 
j  instructors  declared  openly  that  "  Nicholas  II.  would 
have  been  exempted  from  military  service  for  insuffi- 
ciency   of    intellect    in    any    country,    by    any    army 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    37 

doctor."  Yet  he  is  deemed  capable  of  governing  the 
Russian  Empire,  i  Is  this  on  account  of  his  striking 
pathological  analogy  with  his  grandfather,  Alexander  II., 
who  was  undoubtedly  the  most  sympathetic  of  his 
ancestors  ?  The  same  form  of  precocious  erotomania 
which  exhausted  the  "  Liberator  Tsar "  has  drained 
what  little  vigour  Nicholas  was  endowed  with :  the 
same  lapses  of  memory,  the  same  fits  of  hysteria,  the 
same  misplaced  emotions — manifesting  themselves  on 
every  occasion  on  which  his  reason  is  not  sufficiently 
strong  to  guide  his  actions,  the  same  diversity  between 
the  sentimentality  of  the  believer  and  the  arrogance  of 
the  Lord's  Anointed.  In, short,  the  whole  psychology  of 
Alexander  II.  is  repeated  in  Nicholas  II.,  save  that  the 
psychical  vices  are  intensified  to  an  alarming  degree  in 
the  latter.  With  him,  the  faculty  for  judging  the  true 
importance  of  a  deed,  by  comparing  it  with  the  desired 
result,  is  completely  absent.  Alexander's  angle  of 
vision  was  normal  sometimes,  at  least,  for  short  periods 
in  the  course  of  its  gradual  contraction  or  exten- 
sion, according  as  he  alternated  from  hysterical  exhil- 
aration to  fits  of  whimpering  depression.  These  inter- 
mediate states  are  completely  absent  in  Nicholas.  His 
visual  range  is  invariably  distorted  in  one  extreme  or  the 
other.  In  his  boastful  moods  he  pretends  to  omniscience, 
to  control  of  the  whole  machine.  He  transforms  the  world 
into  the  image  of  a  grandiloquent  idea  ;  he  dismisses  his 
Ministers,  admonishes  his  relati\-cs,  shuts  himself  up  with 
State  documents,  exacts  reports  of  ridiculous  details,  on 
pretext  of  his  divinely-ordered  duties.  He  indites 
sonorous  phrases  with  his  own  hand  from  which  he  hopes 
to  reap  miracles  of  good  government,  annotates  the 
reports  of  his  Ministers,  not  with  a  word  of  assent  or 
blame,  but  with   observations  that   arc  less    purposeful 


38  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

than  involuntary,  betraying  his  central  idea  in  his  sacer- 
dotal style.  From  these  states  of  euphoria  (to  borrow 
a  clinical  term)  the  transitions  to  the  contrary  are  all  too 
rapid.  He  falls  asleep  while  discussing  the  Imperial 
Budget  with  his  Minister  Witte  ;  he  is  attacked  with 
syncope  while  listening  to  a  report  on  famine  among 
the  peasants  ;  he  bursts  into  tears  when  asked  to  give 
the  date  of  a  journey  ;  when  required  to  sign  a  Ukase 
appointing  one  of  his  most  important  Ministers  he  ex- 
claims in  distress,  "  Let  me  be  in  peace,  and  do  what 
you  like."  Normal  serenity  between  these  alternating 
states   is   non-existent.     Everything  is  viewed   through 

I    rose-coloured  or  black  spectacles,  according  to  his  mental 

!    condition  at  the  moment. 

This  loss  of  true  perception  of  events  is  a  terrible 

<  misfortune  in  an  ordinary  individual,  but  it  becomes  a 
world-wide  disaster  in  a  Russian  Tsar.  It  is  useless 
to  go  deeper  into  the  matter,  or  to  bring  out  the  details 
and  physiological  corollaries  of  this  evil.  The  psycho- 
logical reality  is  sufficiently  grievous.  But  it  is  equally 
impossible  to  explain  away  the  fact  by  stating  that  such 
a  man  is  scientifically  irresponsible  for  his  actions.  He  is 
so,  without  doubt.  Nevertheless,  historically  speaking, 
he  assumes  the  gravest  possible  responsibilities.  His 
actions,  irresponsible  as  they  may  be,  are  none  the  less 
real.  Their  importance  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
human  activity.  Nicholas  II.  is  not  merely  a  "sick 
man  ;  "  he  is  a  nefarious  Sovereign. 
('  A  recent  incident  will  show  better  than  any  analysis 
i  how  deep-seated  is  the  dominating  characteristic  of  the 
\  psychology  of  Nicholas — his  lack  of  any  clear  perception 
of  things.  For  a  full  month  after  the  murder  of  Plehve, 
at  the  very  time  when  the  whole  of  Russia  was  in  arms 

,    against  the  Tsarian   Government,  when  the  fleet  at  Port 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    39 

Arthur  had  been  destroyed,  and  the  Army  in  Manchuria 
had  met  with  its  severest  reverses,  Nicholas  persistently 
refused  to  appoint  a  Minister  of  the  Interior.  During 
that  same  month  he  made  no  decision  concerning  the 
war,  notwithstanding  the  pressing  appeals  of  Kuro- 
patkin,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  who  urged  a  total 
change  of  administration,  and  the  suppression  of  the 
underhand  intrigues  of  which  he  was  the  victim.  Twenty 
times  they  urged  the  Tsar  to  act. 

"  I  have  not  time,"  he  invariably  replied.  "  I  have 
other  things  to  attend  to."^j^ 

What  things  ?  Great  Heaven  !  It  transpired  that  he 
had  received  a  voluminous  report  from  the  Ministry 
called  by  antiphrasis  that  of  Public  Instruction.  And 
he  trembled  at  the  contents  of  this  all-important  docu- 
ment. The  report  set  forth  that  hitherto  only  a  few  of 
the  actors  in  the  subsidised  theatres  had  received 
decorations,  and  then  merely  those  of  the  inferior  Orders 
of  Stanislas  and  St.  Anne,  and  it  ventilated  the  question 
whether  it  were  not  time  to  create  a  new  decoration 
specially  for  dramatists  and  dramatic  artists,  to  corres- 
pond with  those  granted  by  the  French  Academy. 

This  matter  of  transcendent  importance  took  preced- 
ence for  a  month  over  such  trifles  as  the  fate  of  the 
Army  at  the  front,  or  the  future  of  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment ! 

The  Influence  of  the  Empresses. 

The  serious  consequences  of  such  errors  are  sometimes 
so  obvious  that  they  cannot  escape  even  the  intermittent 
attention  of  the  Sovereign.  The  bad  effects  of  careless- 
ness of  this  sort  have  engendered  in  the  Tsar  an  inde- 
cision and  a  fear  of  voluntary  action  which  have  become 
engrafted    on    to   his   habitually   vacillating    character. 


40  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Unfortunately,  Nicholas  has  no  "  Danish  Partner "  to 
furnish  him  with  the  needful  degree  of  moral  stability. 
With  the  exception  of  Pobiedonostseff,  whose  influence 
on  him  has  not  been  directly  exercised  for  several  years, 
the  Tsar,  already  the  prey  to  effeminate  emotions, 
has  become  entirely  subservient  to  three  women — his 
Mother,  his  Consort,  and  his  sister  Xenia,  His  mother, 
who  has  become  more  and  more  bigoted  and  intolerant — 
and,  in  a  Grand  Ducal  sense,  more  "  Russian " — has 
ever  since  the  death  of  Alexander  III,  been  scheming 
to  retain  the  position  of  First  Woman  of  the  Em- 
pire. She  dominated  Nicholas,  whose  moral  weak- 
nesses she  knew  better  than  anyone  else ;  and  in 
order  not  to  cede  her  influence  to  the  young  Empress, 
who  is  still  the  bete-7ioire  of  the  Grand  Ducal  pack,  she 
deliberately  sided  with  the  reactionary  party,  who  recog- 
nised their  most  formidable  adversary  in  the  Consort 
of  Nicholas  II.  Nicholas,  perceiving  nothing  of  this 
change,  continued  implicitly  to  obey  the  dictates  of 
his  mother,  who,  allied  with  Pobiedonostseff,  has  suc- 
ceeded in  checking  the  liberal  influence  that  should 
have  emanated  from  his  wife.  His  sister,  Xenia,  who 
married  the  Grand  Duke  Alexander  Mikhailovitch,  is 
only  a  new,  and  more  pronounced,  edition  of  his  mother. 
The  young  Empress  lives  in  a  sort  of  inferno,  despite 
the  genuine — but,  unfortunately,  very  superficial — passion 
which  her  husband  entertains  for  her.  She  has  suffered 
a  long  expiation  for  her  intellectual  superiority  and 
modern  notions.  She  succeeded  in  introducing  the 
language  of  her  infancy — English — at  the  Court,  but 
never,  unfortunately,  managed  to  inculcate  the  liberal 
views  conveyed  by  that  language.  She  was  the  Cinder- 
ella of  the  Circle,  Reduced  to  inertia,  disheartened  by 
the  gulf  which  separates  her  from  her  Asiatic  e?itoura^e, 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  41 

she  has  gradually  lost  touch  with  her  former  interest  in  the 
problems  that  agitate  the  civilised  world.  She  no  longer 
reads  Renan,  Strauss,  or  Feuerbach,  once  the  companions 
of  her  pillow,  the  authors  who  have  reduced  Christianity 
to  a  matter  of  conscience.  She  now  takes  refuge  in 
good  works,  and  the  interests  of  church  and  household 
absorb  her.  This  was  the  desired  consummation — well 
served,  for  the  rest,  by  the  misfortune  that  she  had 
given  no  heir  to  the  throne  of  Nicholas.  In  Russia — a 
fundamentally  barbarous  country — woman  is  considered, 
save  in  intellectual  circles,  merely  as  a  machine  for 
producing  male  children,  and  it  is  not  the  Tsaritsa,  but 
the  Mother  of  the  Tsarevitch,  who  is  the  First  Lady  in 
the  Empire.  At  that  time,  the  brother  of  Nicholas  was 
still  Tsarevitch.  The  mother  of  the  Tsar  was  still  the 
mother  of  the  IIcir-Apparcnt :  and  had,  therefore,  as  it 
were,  a  dynastic  right  to  relegate  the  Empress  to  the 
second  place.  The  submission  of  the  latter  was  so  great 
that  she  did  not  hesitate  openly  to  avow  the  fallacy  of  her 
position.  In  family  councils  she  always  refused  to  give 
her  opinion,  and  on  these  occasions  made  use  of  a 
formula  which  graphically  describes  her  true  position  : 
"  I  have  received  an  Fnglish  education.  I  cannot, 
therefore,  give  advice  upon  matters  which  I  understand 
differently." 

All  this  should  have  been  changed  by  the  birth  of  the 
Tsarevitch  Alexis.  Ikit  the  situation  has  only  become 
worse,  by  reason  of  the  continual  interference  of  the 
Imperial  mother-in-law  in  domestic  affairs.  The  Tsare- 
vitch, moreover,  bears  all  the  stigmas  of  his  race.  He 
suffers  from  convulsions,  and  from  a  certain  form  of 
infantile  tuberculosis  which  gives  rise  to  acute  alarm. 
As  a  matter  of  course,  the  narrow-mindedness  of  bigoted 
women  throws  the  responsibility  of  this  on  to  the  mother. 


42  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

And  since  there  is  nothing  more  detrimental  to  a  weak- 
minded  man  than  to  be  surrounded  by  women  with 
conflicting  opinions,  all  claiming  the  first  place  in  his 
affections,  Nicholas  is  at  a  loss  to  find  anywhere  the 
patient  adviser  and  the  unvarying  moral  support  which 
a  degenerate  like  himself  needs  more  than  most  people. 
The  influence  of  the  other  members  of  his  family  is 
still  less  calculated  to  make  up  for  the  warped  judgment 
which  afflicts  His  Imperial  Majesty,  who  is  perfectly 
aware  of  the  secret  dynastic  ambitions  of  his  uncle 
Vladimir.  He  is,  moreover,  informed  by  each  Grand 
Duke  of  the  private  views  of  the  others,  and  of  the 
nature  of  their  interests.  Except  in  very  important 
matters  (when  they  resort  to  threats  in  order  to  empha- 
sise their  wishes),  their  absence  from  Court  is  encouraged 
by  the  Tsar ! 

Occult  Ixfluexces. 

Thus  Nicholas  is  totally  unable  to  obtain  from  others 
the  inspiration  which  his  own  brain  is  incapable  of 
initiating.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  the  degenerates 
who  are  affected  with  "  loss  of  a  sense  of  proportion  " 
that  they  suffer  at  the  same  time  from  a  morbid  fear 
of  intellectual  isolation.  In  the  case  of  the  Tsar,  this 
fear  has  resulted,  on  the  one  hand,  in  a  profound  dis- 
trust of  his  entourage,  on  the  other,  in  a  desire  to 
relieve  his  isolation  by  seeking  "  reliable  "  information, 
independent  of  that  supplied  by  his  usual  advisers.  The 
mysticism  of  Alexander  I.  and  Alexander  II.,  associated 
with  a  truly  grotesque  credulity  in  occult  sources  of 
knowledge,  amounted  to  the  same  thing.  The  mysticism 
of  Nicholas  and  its  concomitant  credulity  is  only  this, 
a  hundred-fold  intensified.  In  his  case  amnesia  counts 
for  much.     It   prevents    him,  e.g.,    from    following  the 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  43 

arguments  of  his  Minister  of  Finance.  After  the 
Hague  Conference,  which  was  merely  a  farce,  it  ex- 
punged from  his  mind  the  details  of  all  that  had 
happened  since  the  invitation  had  been  issued,  on  the 
advice  of  several  Ministers,  with  the  object  of  approving 
new  loans  —so  that  he  received  the  first  representative 
with  the  jovial  exclamation,  "  Well,  how  are  the  loans 
going  on  ?  "  perceiving  too  late  that  he  had  blundered 
into  error,  forgetting  the  Hague  Congress,  the  connect- 
ing link  between  the  initial  idea  and  its  final  conclusion. 
The  instinctive  need  of  not  losing  the  thread  of  events 
and  of  keeping  all  the  necessary  elements  for  the  just 
prevision  of  the  future  under  control,  led  him,  like  his 
grandfather  and  great-great-grandfather,  to  indulge  in 
the  practice  of  occultism.  Official  occultism — that  is, 
the  Orthodoxy  of  which  he  is  Pope — had  failed  him, 
since  its  prophet,  Pobiedonostseff,  revolved  exclusively 
on  a  basis  of  subtleties  which  are  incomprehensible 
to  the  Tsar,  and  which  are  unable  to  offer  him  any 
direct  manifestation  of  supernatural  power. 

The  Court  was  over-run  with  spiritualists  and  clair- 
voyants, the  most  capable  and  honest  of  these  (but 
for  that  very  reason  the  one  who  received  the  least 
attention)  being  M.  Dcmchinski,  a  distinguished 
meteorologist,  who  published  a  daily  weather  forecast 
in  the  great  Anti-Semitic  Journal,  the  Novoc  Vrcmya. 
This  distinguished  savant  had  on  various  occasions  the 
good  fortune  to  predict  fine  weather  for  great  official 
ceremonies,  and  to  find  his  forecasts  verified  :  notably, 
in  1902,  when  he  succeeded  in  mysteriously  obtaining 
sunshine,  in  the  midst  of  a  rainy  season,  for  the  great 
Spring  Military  Parade.  Such  occult  gifts  astonished 
the  Tsar  !  Dcmchinski  must,  indeed,  be  a  prophet ;  and 
if  he  was  so  for  the  Heavens,  surely  his  gifts  must  apply 


44  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

still  more  to  Earth,  i.e.,  to  the  fate  of  Russia.  Nicholas, 
during  intimate  confabulations,  laid  all  his  political 
troubles  before  him,  ordering  him  to  prescribe  decisive 
measures  to  be  taken  in  order  to  allay  the  growing  dis- 
content, as  provoked  by  the  terrible  regime  of  Plehve. 
Demchinski  was  commanded  to  submit  two  bulky 
reports,  in  which  he  advocated  the  convening  of  a 
National  Representative  Assembly.  The  unhappy  man 
had  neglected  to  confer  with  Plehve  and  the  Grand 
Dukes,  and  to  name  his  price  for  recommending  measures 
that  would  have  been  more  agreeable  to  them.  He 
was  denounced  as  an  "  impostor,"  and,  after  his  second 
report  had  been  sent  in  (January,  1903),  the  Tsar  left 
him  to  his  fate,  merely  returning  the  penultimate 
memorandum — a  garbled  version  of  which  had  already 
appeared  in  the  Liberal  papers  of  London  and  Berlin — 
with  the  characteristic  annotation,  "  Everything  is 
known  to  me. — Nicholas." 

In  his  interviews  Demchinski  had  explained  the 
influences  of  sun,  moon,  and  innumerable  unknown 
forces  upon  the  weather  that  presides  over  parades,  to 
Nicholas.  Politics  might  therefore  be  determined  by  the 
harmony  of  the  stellar  motions — a  species  of  Court  of 
Appeal  from  terrestrial  affairs.  Obviously,  as  Nicholas 
declared,  a  meteorologist  is  only  a  second-rate  astrologist. 
But  the  latter  are  rare,  and  there  was  not  one  to  hand. 
Nevertheless,  the  mysterious  forces  which  transform 
the  soul  can  only  be  emanations  from  the  stars,  and 
are  enshrined  in  certain  individuals,  notably  in  masseurs, 
hypnotists,  and  spiritualists. 

The  Tsaritsa,  acting  on  the  advice  of  her  husband,  had 
placed  herself  in  the  skilful  hands  of  a  masseur  from 
Lorraine,  in  hope  of  bearing  a  son.  The  work  was  long 
and    fruitless,    but    the    Imperial    confidence    remained 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    45 

unshaken.  After  a  year  of  effort,  the  expert  had  only 
obtained  the  gratuitous  concession  of  a  part  of  the 
Tauric  Park  at  St.  Petersburg,  for  the  purpose  of  build- 
ing an  establishment  for  Swedish  massage  there  with 
the  Tsaritsa's  money.  But  Nicholas,  after  numerous 
consultations,  had  conceived  the  idea  that  a  man  who 
claims  to  be  able  to  give  an  heir  to  the  Tsar  can  also 
give  happiness  to  his  Empire.  He  listened  to  the 
counsels  of  the  masseur,  who  was  secretly  subsidised  by 
Plehve,  and  began  to  distrust  his  only  honest  Minister, 
VVitte.  Unfortunately,  the  Municipality  of  the  Capital 
respectfully  protested  against  the  abandonment  of  a 
public  garden  for  the  benefit  of  a  sorcerer,  and  the  Tsar 
in  a  moment  of  lucidity  thanked  the  masseur,  and  dis- 
missed him. 

More  subtle  expedients  were  desirable.  Philippe,  the 
hypnotist,  in  return  for  the  Tsar's  cash,  suggestionised  the 
Tsaritsa  with  the  notion  of  the  delivery  of  a  son,  and, 
for  cash  from  certain  other  sources,  impressed  a  policy 
of  repression  upon  the  Tsar.  Strange  to  say,  the  con- 
fidence Nicholas  felt  in  Plehve  now  had  no  bounds, 
whereas  the  magnetic  powers  of  the  wizard  were  mani- 
festly unable  to  procure  an  Heir  to  the  Throne.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  were  vastly  useful  to  those  who  paid  for 
them.  Philippe  showed  Nicholas  by  telepathy  a  rail- 
way for  which  a  Moscow  contractor  had  received  some 
tens  of  millions  of  roubles,  while  he  had  merely  put  up 
a  simple  telegraph  wire ;  and  thereby  succeeded  in  getting 
the  Tsar  to  reduce  the  sentence  which  certain  magis- 
trates—unable to  discover  the  existence  of  the  railway 
in  question — had  inflicted  on  this  peculator.  Whilst 
vividly  describing  the  plots  of  non-existent  revolution- 
aries, Philippe  was  tactless  enough  to  make  the  Tsare- 
vitch's    advent    depend   on   the    concession    to    a    great 


46  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Belgian  Company  of  the  metal  required  for  the  building 
of  a  bridge  in  Asia.  Nicholas  took  fright  at  such  variety 
of  interests.      Hypnotism  was  played  out. 

There  remained  a  yet  more  subtle  thing,  Spiritualism. 
A  Frenchman  from  Lyons  was  clever  enough  to  turn 
Nicholas'  head  and  his  tables  simultaneously.  The 
spirit  of  Alexander  I.,  who,  it  appeared,  was  specially 
apt  in  family  affairs,  predicted  the  advent  of  the  long 
looked  for  son  !  The  rejoicings  were  general ;  the 
Tsaritsa  took  up  her  role. 

The  spirits,  however,  did  more.  They  brought  about 
the  Russo-Japanese  War.  A  certain  number  of  shady 
officials,  among  them  the  Grand  Duke  Alexander 
Mikhailovitch,  already  named,  the  ex-Viceroy  Alexeieff, 
and  the  uncanonical  Minister,  Bezobrazoff,  concerning 
whom  we  shall  have  more  to  say  presently,  endeavoured 
to  promote  a  gigantic  enterprise  with  the  Emperor's 
money  and  patronage.  It  was  nominally  concerned 
with  the  exploitation  of  immense  tracts  of  forest-land  at 
Yonghampo,  near  the  Yalu  in  Korea,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  financial  company  with  the  same  object.  It 
was,  in  reality,  an  incursion  into  Korean  territory,  and 
the  attitude  of  Japan  in  view  of  the  fraudulent  annexa- 
tion of  Manchuria  was  disquieting.  At  the  suggestion 
of  Count  Lamsdorff,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs, 
Nicholas  therefore  ignored  the  project.  Alexander 
Mikhailovitch  came  to  the  rescue,  and  asked  the  Tsar 
to  examine  the  matter  personally  before  he  rejected  it, 
and  to  receive  Bezobrazoff  again  in  audience.  The  Tsar 
evoked  the  shade  of  Alexander  II.,  conqueror  of  Turkey  ! 
The  complaisant  spirit  naturally  told  him  that  the  affair 
was  imperative  to  the  welfare  of  Russia,  that  the  Im- 
perial Family  ought  to  take  it  up,  and  that  it  would  be 
the  commencement  of  a  pacific  conquest  of  the  Korea. 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    47 

The  next  morning  Bezobrazoff  presented  himself,  in 
company  with  the  Grand  Duke,  and  repeated  exactly  the 
same  advice  as  the  Spirit  had  given.  Nicholas,  astonished 
and  deeply  impressed,  promptly  subscribed  six  millions, 
and  undertook  that  his  relatives  would  do  the  same. 
The  Society  put  up  fortifications  in  Korea  instead  of 
cutting  down  trees ;  Japan  not  unnaturally  regarded 
this  as  "  the  seizure  by  the  Russian  dynasty  of  a  portion 
of  Korea,"  lost  all  confidence  in  the  Tsar's  sincerity, 
demanded  that  the  "  concession  "  should  be  abandoned, 
and  upon  a  refusal  to  comply  with  these  requests,  com- 
menced hostilities. 

Nicholas  was  confounded  ;  but  in  view  of  the  Tsaritsa's 
condition  he  continued  none  the  less  to  resort  to  spirits 
and  table-turning.  The  shades  of  Napoleon  and 
Frederick  the  Great  were  summoned,  but,  seeing  the 
impasse  and  the  peril  of  predictions,  they  wisely 
gave  contrary  opinions.  Finally,  Admiral  Makaroff 
foundered  with  the  armoured  cruiser  Petropavlovsk. 
The  sacred  icons  on  the  vessel  rose  to  the  surface  and 
were  thrown  up  on  the  sea-shore,  which  was  considered 
a  good  omen.  An  astute  diver  went  down,  and  saw  the 
lost  crew  standing  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  whilst  the 
Archimandrite  said  Mass,  and  the  drowned  Admiral 
made  a  patriotic  speech  !  The  Tsar  had  not  heard  this, 
but — he  had  summoned  the  spirit  of  the  Admiral.  Need- 
less to  say,  the  shade  predicted  ultimate  victory,  promised 
to  rise  up  again  with  the  armoured  cruiser,  to  resume 
command  of  the  Fleet,  to  occupy  Tokio,  and  announced 
the  arrival  of  a  special  messenger  !  On  the  same  day 
Nicholas  heard  the  story  of  the  diver,  and  summoned  the 
man  before  him  to  repeat  it  in  person.  Was  it  this 
coincidence  ? — or  a  movcincnt  of  genuine  suspicion  ? 
— or  was  it  the    total   destruction   of  the    Fleet    which 


48  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Makaroffs  soul  had  wished  to  convoy  to  Japan  ?  In  any 
case,  the  poor,  impotent,  omnipotent  Autocrat  declined 
to  have  any  more  to  do  with  table-turners  ! 

But  at  last,  amid  all  his  troubles,  Nicholas  saw  a  pros- 
pect of  salvation.  Two  marvellous  astrologers  made 
their  appearance  for  his  diversion.  Their  vogue  was 
still  at  its  zenith  in  the  beginning  of  1905.  It  is  owing 
to  them  that  Nicholas  has  not  abandoned  the  nominal 
despotism  which  cloaks  the  tyranny  of  the  Bureaucracy, 
in  face  of  the  Revolutionary  attacks.  Think  of  the 
Tsar's  good  fortune :  they  proved  by  equations, 
logarithms,  differential  calculus,  and  other  diabolical 
mathematical  inventions,  that  the  critical  year  for 
Nicholas  II.  would  be — 1912  !  But  they  did  not  bring 
forward  the  generous  cheques  of  the  reactionary  Grand 
Dukes  in  evidence  of  their  allegations. 

The  Government  of  Nicholas  II. 

Such  childish  and  superstitious  methods  of  looking 
upon  the  world  and  real  events,  such  ignorance  of  every- 
thing that  makes  for  the  well-being  of  Men  and  States, 
are  entirely  incompatible  with  the  right  exercise  of 
power.  The  influence  of  the  Grand  Dukes,  of  the  two 
Empresses,  and,  above  all,  of  the  Bureaucratic  caste  that 
really  governs  the  Empire,  obviously  tends  to  inhibit 
the  intervention  of  the  Sovereign  in  public  affairs  as 
much  as  possible.  Now,  since  he  is  the  only  person 
qualified  to  orientate  the  administration  of  State  Affairs, 
the  effective  regulation  of  the  same  must  be  reduced  to 
a  minimum  ;  modifications  must  be  forbidden,  reforms 
must  be  looked  on  as  more  dangerous  than  anything 
else  ;  the  maintenance  of  the  statu  quo  ante  in  all  things 
— with  its  inevitable  results  of  growing  decay  in  the 
neglected   organisation — must   be   the    supreme  aim   of 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    49 

those  who  hold  the  reins  of  State.  The  irresponsible 
powers  of  the  subordinates  must  simultaneously  develop 
in  monstrous  forms,  the  stagnation  of  public  and  private 
matters  can  but  end  in  an  impasse  ;  in  short,  all  initiative 
in  whatever  sphere  of  life  must  remain  dormant  under  the 
double  weight  of  uncertainty  as  to  the  future,  and  the 
arbitrary  oppression  of  the  executive.  The  actual  state 
of  things  corresponds  entirely  with  these  theoretical 
deductions. 

The  principle  of  the  regime — if  lack  of  principle  can 
form  a  system — which  has  oppressed  the  subjects  of 
the  Tsar  for  forty-five  years,  and  has  gradually  developed 
since  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  is  fundamentally  simple. 
M.  l^ieloff,  a  gentleman  of  good  family  and  the  Tsar's 
confidant,  was  appealed  to  last  year  by  His  Majesty 
as  to  the  possibility  of  simplifying  the  vast  jumble  of 
ukases,  prikases,  rasporiajenias,  zakoiis,  and  the  other 
arbitrary  decrees  which  take  the  place  of  laws  in  Russia. 
M.  Bieloff  readily  enough  gave  the  following  ingenious 
solution  of  the  question  : 

"  All  these  laws,"  said  he,  "  are  more  or  less  circum- 
locutions. Your  Majesty  should  abolish  them  all,  and 
replace  them  by  a  simple  sentence,  which  would  have 
exactly  the  same  effect." 

"What  sentence?"  demanded  Nicholas  II. 

"  Merely  this :  '  The  Tsar's  subjects  are  prohibited 
from  working.' " 

The  Emperor  laughed,  but,  unfortunately,  did  not 
follow  the  advice,  which,  however,  contained  the  essence 
of  the  Russian  troubles.  This  story  is  related  by  a 
person  who  was  actually  present  during  the  conversa- 
tion ;  and  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  Tsar  did 
not  give  his  adviser  an  opportunity  of  explaining  him- 
self    An  explanation  would  not  only  have  shown  the 

E 


50  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Emperor  the  intolerable  oppression  which  stifles  the 
intellectual,  economical,  and  moral  life  of  his  subjects, 
but  would  also  have  demonstrated  his  own  impotence  to 
oppose  the  Bureaucratic  party,  or  to  obtain  ever  so 
small  a  fraction  of  the  power  which  is  implied  by  his 
title  of  "  Autocrat." 

Subservience  of  Nicholas  II. 

Undoubtedly  the  Tsar  himself  is  the  first  of  the 
130,000,000  Russians  to  whom  "work  is  prohibited." 
Indeed,  if  we  analyse  the  pathology  of  the  dynasty  as  a 
whole,  we  see  that  autocracy  has  never  been  anything 
but  a  fiction  since  the  famous  "  great  reforms  "  v/hich 
marked  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  It  is  now  common 
knowledge  that  the  Tsar  is  separated  from  the  nation, 
as  from  the  outside  world,  by  an  impenetrable  army  of 
relatives  and  officials,  who  prevent  him  from  getting 
the  slightest  reliable  information  about  current  events, 
and  from  taking  any  step  that  might  prejudice  either 
the  person  or  the  interests  of  his  unscrupulous  advisers. 
Beyond  the  Ministerial  reports  (which  are  the  more 
mendacious  from  their  irresponsibility,  from  the  fact 
that  no  official  relations  exist  between  the  Ministers, 
no  one  of  whom  will  consult  with  his  colleagues  on 
any  point,  and  that  accordingly  each  draws  up  his 
reports  to  his  own  advantage  and  the  detriment  of  his 
rivals),  the  Tsar  receives  for  his  information  only  care- 
fully "  doctored  "  printed  extracts.  The  Russian  citizen 
is  the  victim  of  a  single  Censor  :  Nicholas  II.  is  the  slave 
of  three  or  four.  A  special  office,  called  the  "  Depart- 
ment for  the  Publication  of  Journals,"  inaugurates  the 
process  of  purging,  and  suppresses  anything  that  might 
prove  disagreeable  to  His  Majesty,  above  all,  every- 
thing that  might  influence  his  political  decisions.     The 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    51 

"literary  staff"  of  the  Bureau  next  select  and  cut  out 
all  the  passages  that  are  "  admissible,"  paste  them  on 
sheets,  and  pass  them  on  to  the  Director,  Nive. 
The  doubtful  passages  are  by  him  submitted  to  the 
Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  who  suppresses  or  corrects 
them.  Finally,  they  are  typewritten,  and  offered  to 
the  inspection  of  the  Censor,  after  which  Nicholas,  "  the 
Autocrat,"  is  allowed  to  partake  of  this  intellectual 
pabulum,  which  has  been  masticated  no  less  than  four 
distinct  times  by  his  gaolers — and  it  is  seldom  that 
the  Tsar  receives  any  other  news.  The  Revolutionaries 
occasionally  find  the  means  to  place  their  more  im- 
portant decisions  or  threats  on  his  table  ;  otherwise,  for 
several  years,  there  has  existed  but  one  channel  through 
which  the  outer  world  has  been  able  to  place  such  books 
and  pamphlets  in  the  hands  of  the  Autocrat  as  it 
wishes  him  to  read  before  they  are  "edited"  by  the 
Bureaucracy ;  this  medium  of  communication  is  his 
sister,  the  Grand  Duchess  Xenia.  Needless  to  say,  the 
very  publications  he  ought  to  read  do  not  reach  him  by 
this  channel. 

On  the  other  hand,  his  theoretical  freedom  to  rule  the 
Empire  is  rendered  worthless  by  certain  stipulations 
made  by  his  predecessors,  which  have  been  enforced  by 
the  official  world  in  order  to  prevent  his  taking  any 
initiative.  No  law,  ukase  or  prikase,  can  be  decided 
without  the  matter  in  question  being  first  referred  to  a 
Minister  ;  and  the  ukase  has  then  to  be  ratified  by 
the  Senate.  The  "laws"  have  first  to  be  discussed  by 
the  Council  of  the  Empire,  and  are  then  promulgated 
by  the  vSenate.  /Ml  important  matters  have  to  be 
submitted  to  s[)ccial  Commissions,  in  which  the  officials 
elaborate  schemes  which  the  Tsar  is  obliged  to  ratify, 
since  he  has  no  power  of  independent  conclusion.      By  a 

E  2 


52  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

curious  irony,  experts,  professional  men,  and  those 
directly  interested  are  invariably  excluded.  Hence 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Russian  legislation  of 
to-day  contains  no  laws  relating  to  the  condition  of 
the  people,  still  less  to  the  "  Divine  right "  of  the 
Sovereign.  This  abuse  of  power  has  resulted  in 
the  extraordinary  fact  that,  for  several  years,  no  one 
decision  of  any  importance  can  be  attributed  to  the 
personal  initiative  of  the  Tsar.  The  Tsar  is  obliged 
on  all  occasions  to  obey  the  suggestions  of  his  relatives 
and  his  officials,  who  have  arranged  their  line  of  action 
beforehand,  so  that  the  advice  of  any  one  endorses  that 
of  all  the  others  with  miraculous  unanimity. 

Needless  to  say,  this  is  a  fatal  state  of  affairs  both  for 
the  country  and  for  the  Tsar's  personal  prestige.  The 
distressful  situation  is  admirably  illustrated  by  an 
incident  which  was  subsequently,  by  a  rare  chance, 
revealed  to  the  Tsar  by  the  King  of  England,  but  which 
had  by  that  time  had  the  dire  effect  of  launching 
Nicholas  into  the  war  with  Japan.  Since  1903  the 
reactionary  party  had  solicited  hostilities,  but  had  been 
persistently  opposed  by  Count  Lamsdorff,  the  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs.  In  order  to  rid  himself  of 
Lamsdorff,  Plehve  organised  a  service  of  diplomatic 
information  independent  of  the  Ambassadors  in  Paris, 
Berlin,  and  London.  The  activity  of  this  questionable 
institution  amounted  to  treason,  and  it  misled  the  Tsar 
with  the  object  of  discrediting  Lamsdorff.  Shady 
individuals  in  London  and  Paris — notably  a  Serb  named 
Veselitski,  a  Russian  Anti-Semite,  journalist,  and  in- 
former— were  bidden  to  forward  mendacious  reports  on 
the  international  situation  to  Plehve,  not  Lamsdorff. 
They  pretended,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the  claims  of 
Japan  were  in  no  way  supported  by  England,  and,  on 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    53 

the  other,  that  France,  in  the  event  of  a  conflict,  would 
not  hesitate  to  intervene  by  arms  in  favour  of  Russia. 
Plehve  intended  to  provoke  a  war  between  England  and 
France  in  order  to  save  Russia  from  a  disaster  at  the 
last  moment.  But  it  temporarily  sufficed  to  convince  the 
Tsar  that  he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  England,  and 
that,  as  the  support  of  France  was  guaranteed  him,  he 
could  with  impunity  reject  the  demands  of  Japan. 

Lamsdorff,  better  informed  by  the  Ambassadors, 
thought  otherwise  ;  but  each  time  he  submitted  his 
diplomatic  despatches  to  the  Tsar,  the  latter  already 
had  on  his  table  a  contradictory  report  handed  in  by 
Plehve.  Nicholas  naively  confessed  that  he  received 
these  reports  through  the  intermediary  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Alexander  Mikhailovitch  ;  the  Tsar  naturally 
thought  that  his  brother-in-law  was  supported  by  his 
sister,  and  Lamsdorff's  position  was  not  a  little  shaken. 
Happily,  in  spite  of  the  conspirators,  he  justified  himself 
by  throwing  the  responsibility  of  his  "errors"  on  his 
Ambassadors !  Then,  when  the  War  was  at  its  height, 
Count  Benckendorff,  the  English  Ambassador,  came 
from  London  w^ith  a  letter  from  Edward  VII.,  which 
enlightened  the  Tsar  as  to  the  whole  abominable  in- 
trigue. This  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  disgrace 
of  the  Viceroy  Alexcieff,  who  had  conceived  the  entire 
business.  But  the  disaster  it  had  engendered — the 
Russo-Japanese  War — took  its  course  none  the  less  ! 

On  rare  occasions  the  Ministers  arrive  at  a  decision 
without  a  series  of  preliminary  intrigues.  One  of  these 
few  exceptional  cases  was  the  settlement  of  the  Anglo- 
Russian  incident  provoked  b}'  the  outrage  on  the  Hull 
fisher-flcct.  On  this  occasion  an  abominable  fabrica- 
tion of  lies  by  the  military  party  almost  succeeded  in 
representing    the    event    as    provoked    by  the    English. 


54  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

For  four  days  the  Ministry  of  Marine  refused  to  com- 
municate the  official  telegraphic  reports  to  Count  Lams- 
dorff,  the  friend  of  peace.  He  succeeded,  however,  in 
obtaining  a  report  direct  from  London  an  hour  before 
the  sitting  of  the  Council  which  was  to  decide  the  atti- 
tude to  be  taken.  This  stated  that  the  reports  from  the 
Admiralty  had  been  altered  so  as  to  influence  the  Tsar; 
Lamsdorff  insisted  on  his  information,  showed  that  Eng- 
land desired  to  maintain  peace,  and  threw  the  ranks  of 
the  intriguers  into  utter  confusion.  The  Tsar,  pale  and 
agitated — either  from  grief  or  anger — and  possibly  re- 
calling the  Benckendorff  Affair,  supported  Lamsdorff, 
and  said,  "  The  matter  must  be  settled  by  arbitration. 
M.  Lamsdorff  will  draw  up  a  report  immediately."  He 
then  dismissed  the  Council  and  retired  hurriedly. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  numerous  instances  in 
which  the  Bureaucracy  has  gone  directly  contrary  to  the 
will  and  promises  of  the  Tsar,  who  has  subsequently 
been  obliged,  in  the  interests  of  his  moral  prestige,  to 
ratify  measures  which  he  would  otherwise  have  con- 
demned. One  example  out  of  a  thousand  may  be  cited 
— the  nomination  of  General  Sakharoff  to  the  post  of 
Minister  of  War.  The  original  Minister  of  War,  Kuro- 
patkin,  had,  as  we  shall  see,  been  hindered  in  his  pre- 
parations for  the  War.  Disorganisation  reigned  supreme, 
but  the  General's  fame  was  still  paramount.  After  the 
first  disasters,  Plehve's  party  urged  the  Tsar  to  appoint 
Kuropatkin  to  the  command— really  in  the  hope  that  it 
would  lead  to  his  downfall.  The  Tsar  assented  with 
pleasure,  but  Kuropatkin  refused  the  post,  and,  at  the 
first  alarm,  took  refuge  with  his  mother  in  a  village  in 
the  Pskof  Government,  where  no  dispatches  could  reach 
him.  Here  he  held  out  for  a  week,  but  at  last,  in 
obedience  to  the  Tsar's  orders,  accepted  the  command. 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    55 

on  the  condition  that  he  should  remain  nominally 
Minister  of  War,  to  avoid  any  subordination  to  a 
superior  who,  if  he  belonged  to  the  reactionaries,  would 
inevitably  complicate  the  situation.  Kuropatkin  well 
knew  what  awaited  him,  and  said  to  one  friend,  "  I 
shall  arrive  yonder  like  Wimpffen  at  Sedan " ;  and  to 
another,  "  They  are  sending  me  to  the  front  to  get  rid  of 
me  ;  I  shall  be  powerless." 

Scarcely  had  he  left  when  Sakharoff,  the  chief  of  the 
conspirators,  was  appointed  War  Minister  :  the  plot  had 
succeeded  ! 

A  few  days  after  the  departure  of  Kuropatkin,  General 
Sakharoff,  Chief  of  Staff,  signed  several  decrees  as 
"  Minister  of  War,"  and  the  Tsar  was  so  entirely  under 
the  thumb  of  the  reactionary  group  that  he  was  obliged 
to  ratify  the  nomination  of  Sakharoff,  in  the  belief  that 
the  whole  nation  already  looked  upon  him  as  duly 
appointed,  although,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  nobody — except 
the  few  people  in  the  plot — was  aware  of  the  swindle 
that  had  been  perpetrated. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  very  paradoxical 
to  imagine  that,  if  he  but  fully  realised  the  role  he  is 
made  to  play,  the  Tsar  would  personally  support  those 
of  the  Revolutionary  party  who  desire  the  establishment 
of  a  Constitutional  Monarchy  and  the  destruction  oi 
the  Bureaucratic  Caste. 

Nicholas  the  Megalomaniac. 

Unfortunately,  the  Tsar  has  no  inkling  that  he  is 
being  duped.  The  idea  of  "  Divine  right,"  which  Po- 
bicdonostseff  had  inculcated  in  him,  and  which  is  in 
reality  the  only  thing  that  enables  him  to  consider  his 
role  as  bearable,  dominates  him  so  that  even  in  his 
periods  of  complete  abulia  he  does  not  cease  to  believe 


56  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

himself  the  source  from  which  every  act  of  government 
emanates.  Even  in  those  moods  in  which  he  passion- 
ately insists  on  being  left  alone,  his  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility appears  to  be  uppermost,  and  there  are  numerous 
cases  on  record  in  which  after  literally  showing  Ministers, 
who  had  come  to  talk  with  him  on  grave  matters  of 
State,  to  the  door,  he  has  immediately  shut  himself  up 
to  study  the  documents  in  question.  The  omniscience 
of  which  he  believes  himself  the  accredited  holder  urges 
him  into  a  mania  for  marginal  interpolations,  in  which 
form  he  annotates  all  the  papers  he  peruses.  His  faith  in 
the  illimitable  efficacy  of  these  annotations  is  absolute, 
and  the  official  legislation  indeed  demands  that  they 
be  obeyed  as  far  as  possible.  This  is  the  more  dangerous 
for  the  country,  since  these  orders  are  generally  given 
without  any  previous  discussion — that  is  to  say,  they 
are  usually  the  result  of  the  specious  arguments  of  an 
interested  Minister,  who  cunningly  escapes  Imperial 
criticism — or  they  are  written  in  moods  of  ill-temper 
and  caprice,  when  some  association  of  exaggerated  ideas 
or  vague  impressions  warps  the  naturally  stunted  judg- 
ment of  the  Sovereign.  As  in  such  moments  he 
exaggerates  rather  than  minimises  his  enormous  res- 
ponsibility, it  is  these  uncontrolled  acts  that  give 
the  true  measure  of  the  mentality  of  Nicholas  II.  And 
they  show  that,  apart  from  the  crooked  and  fraudulent 
decisions  imposed  upon  him  by  unscrupulous  Ministers, 
and  for  which  he  is  not  wholly  responsible,  Nicholas  II. 
has  a  shocking  tendency  to  make  himself  the  willing 
accomplice  of  the  worst  shortcomings  of  his  officials, — 
as,  for  example,  in  the  horrible  persecution  of  the 
Jews. 

In  1903,  Witte  forced  himself  on   Nicholas  at  Darm- 
stadt, and  explained  to  him  the  iniquitous  consequences 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  57 

of  Plehve's  Anti-Semitic  policy.  The  latter,  seeing  his 
prestige  in  danger,  and  possibly  tired  of  being  compared 
by  the  civilised  world  to  Torquemada,  Abdul  Hamid,  or 
Timur,  justified  himself,  like  a  traitor  turned  king's 
evidence,  by  publishing  a  small  pamphlet  in  his  own 
defence.  Plehve's  1902  scheme,  the  object  of  which  was 
still  further  to  limit  the  domiciliary  rights  of  the  Jews  in 
Siberia,  carries  the  following  note  in  the  Emperor's 
handwriting  : — "  The  Jews  who  quit  their  legal  zone  of 
residence  annually  inundate  entire  districts  of  Siberia 
with  their  disgusting  presence.  This  intolerable  nuisance 
must  be  put  a  stop  to." 

Then  Nicholas  II.  accepts  Plehve's  dictum  :  "A  third 
of  the  Jews  will  be  converted,  another  third  will  emigrate, 
the  rest — will  perish  ?  " 

It  was  he  who  imprisoned  the  Jews  in  their  ghettos,  to 
murder  them  by  hunger  and  typhoid  !  It  was  he  who 
reduced  63  per  cent,  of  the  Jewish  families  to  absolute 
indigence  !  It  was  lie  who  allowed  Jewish  prostitutes 
only  to  leave  their  quarters,  and  who  imprisoned  or 
exiled  them  whenev^er  the  police  reported  that  these 
unhappy  women  had  worked,  or  had  courted  the  stigma 
of  shame  solely  in  order  to  acquire  a  right  of  living 
where  they  were ! 

In  these  acts  of  sovereign  initiative,  a  childish 
ignorance  of  facts  is  mingled  with  their  odium.  The 
cynicism  which  constantly  manifests  itself  in  the  dim 
light  of  Nicholas'  study  during  his  hours  "  of  solitary 
reflection  "  shov.^s  better  than  anything  else  of  what  this 
man  would  be  capable  if  he  were  not  in  the  majority  of 
cases  reduced  to  passive  obedience  to  his  entourage.  Of 
this  we  have  many  examples. 

Here  is  one  worthy  of  being  cited,  since  it  shows, 
besides  his   cynicism,  the   measure  of  the  insolence  of 


58  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  Bureaucracy  in  face  of  his  impotence,  changing  into 
abject  flattery  when  their  Sovereign  follows  his  caprices. 

It  concerns  the  nomination  of  General  Kleigels  to 
the  post  of  Governor-General  of  Kieff  in  1903.  This 
abominable  personage  was  Prefect  of  the  St.  Petersburg 
Police,  and  in  that  character  presided  over  the  Tsar's 
safety.  He  achieved  a  world-wide  reputation  by  the 
deliberate  murder  of  sixty-two  students,  slaughtered 
before  his  eyes  on  the  Nevskii  Prospekt  in  the  course  of 
a  pacific  University  manifestation — for  which  deed  he 
received  warm  personal  congratulations  from  the  idealist 
Nicholas. 

In  1902,  Kleigels  embezzled  the  whole  of  the  funds 
placed  to  the  credit  of  the  Fire  Brigade  of  St.  Peters- 
burg. Lopoukine,  a  creature  of  Plehve,  who  was  Public 
Prosecutor  at  that  time,  informed  the  Senate,  a  kind  of 
High  Court,  at  the  instigation  of  Plehve  (who  was 
always  anxious  to  get  rid  of  a  powerful  man),  of 
Kleigels'  dishonesty,  but  the  Imperial  Cabinet  put  a 
stop  to  the  prosecution,  and  Lopoukine  was  recalled  on 
account,  it  was  said,  of  a  certain  "  indelicacy  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  his  duties."  Six  months  later  Plehve  created 
him  Chief  of  the  Political  Police,  a  position  which  he 
occupied  till  March,  1905,  when  he  became  Governor  of 
Esthonia. 

He  allied  himself  with  one  of  Kleigels'  subordinates, 
who  supplied  him  with  a  complete  and  irrefutable  list  of 
the  thefts  and  peculations  of  his  chief  Plehve  handed  the 
Tsar  a  detailed  report  of  Kleigels'  roguery,  but  the  Auto- 
crat would  not  listen  to  him,  retained  the  documents,  and 
sent  the  Minister  about  his  business.  Fifteen  days  later, 
the  Tsar  returned  the  papers  to  him  without  a  w^ord,  and 
Plehve  was  surprised  to  read  on  the  first  page  the  admir- 
able sentiment,  "  I  am  indebted  to  Kleigels. — Nicholas." 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    59 

Three  days  later,  Plehve,  having  exiled  the  official  who 
furnished  him  with  the  documents  in  question,  without 
trial,  as  a  Revolutionary,  proposed  the  nomination  of 
Kleigels,  in  a  eulogistic  report,  for  the  eligible  position  of 
Governor-General  of  Kieff,  to  which  he  was  immediately 
appointed. 

The  Reign  of  Terror. 

The  association  of  Nicholas  II.  with  so  compromised 
a  man  at  first  sight  appears  almost  incredible,  but  the 
thing  is  easily  explained  by  the  state  of  abject  terror 
in  which  he  lives,  as  well  as  by  the  fact  that  the  Tsar 
always  believes  himself  to  be  the  chief  object  of  Nihilist 
persecution.  As  a  matter  of  fact  his  insignificance  has 
hitherto  protected  him  for  a  longer  time  than  his  soldiers 
could  have  done,  for  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his 
death  would  greatly  hamper  a  revolution.  Even  when 
Plehve  had  been  eliminated  (July,  1904),  the  Terrorists 
informed  him  that  he  was  not  condemned  to  death, 
and  this  decree  was  only  rescinded  subsequently  to  the 
massacre  at  St.  Petersburg,  January  22,  1905.  His 
constant  terror  has  nevertheless  increased  steadily  by 
reason  of  his  megalomania  since  the  Hague  Conference, 
in  which  he  posed  as  a  sort  of  Messiah,  whereas  in  reality 
he  was  merely  contracting  for  loans  on  easy  terms. 
From  that  moment  he  has  imagined  that  all  the  powers 
of  darkness  arc  in  coalition  against  him  as  the  most 
important  individual  in  the  world.  Finding  that  no 
serious  attempt  was  made  on  his  life  at  that  period  he 
began  to  suspect  that  the  police  were  not  sufficiently 
vigilant,  and  consequently  dismissed  the  Prefect  of 
Police.  Kleigels,  his  successor,  worked  to  better  effect. 
With  the  assistance  of  his  spies  he  concocted  threat- 
ening letters,  which  he  "  intercepted  "  and  presented  to 
Nicholas.    He  also  "  discovered  "  certain  sinister  Terrorist 


6o  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

proclamations  written  in  blood  on  black  paper — one  of 
which  forgeries  was  found  in  Lopoukine's  portfolio 
by  the  Tsar  himself.  One  day  he  caused  a  couple  of 
rails  between  St.  Petersburg  and  Tsarskoe  Selo  to  be 
taken  up,  and  notified  His  Majesty  of  his  peril  five 
minutes  before  his  departure  from  St.  Petersburg : 
Nicholas  wept  for  joy  at  the  vigilance  of  his  preserver ! 
Kleigels  forthwith  set  to  work  with  enthusiasm  to  play  the 
game  of"  saving  "  the  Tsar's  life  at  least  once  a  week,  and 
His  Majesty,  confident  of  the  genuineness  of  the  plots 
against  his  existence,  loaded  the  Chief  of  Police  with 
presents  and  honours.  Eventually  he  conceived  the 
grand  idea  of  organising  a  tragi-comedy  at  Tsarskoe 
Selo,  in  imitation  of  the  monstrous  attempt  which,  in  the 
reign  of  Alexander  II.,  had  destroyed  an  entire  storey  of 
the  Winter  Palace.  The  history  of  this  "  attempt "  is 
little  known.  Kleigels  undermined  the  Commemorative 
Church  at  Tsarskoe  Selo,  made  ominous  excavations  in 
the  pillars,  and  constructed  a  web  of  electric  wires  along 
the  walls  and  beneath  the  Emperor's  throne,  under  which 
he  buried  a  biscuit  tin  !  On  the  eve  of  a  great  commemo- 
rative ceremony  in  honour  of  Alexander  1 1 1.,  which  was 
to  have  taken  place  in  the  chapel,  he  denounced  this 
"infernal  plot"  with  consummate  audacity  to  the 
Autocrat :  Nicholas  fainted,  and  henceforth  regarded 
Kleigels  as  the  greatest  man  in  Russia. 

These  vagaries  of  Nicholas  have  to  a  large  extent 
contributed  to  discredit  his  rule  in  the  country,  and  to 
destroy  in  the  popular  mind  the  old-fashioned  idea  of 
the  moral  irresponsibility  of  the  Tsar  for  the  misdeeds 
of  the  Bureaucrats  who  act  in  his  name.  The  extra- 
ordinary obsessions  which  master  him  directly  he  is 
free  of  his  interlocutors  have  filled  the  Imperial  brain 
with  a  sense  of  aggrieved  obstinacy,  whilst  even  irrefut- 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    6i 

able  proofs  that  he  is  in  the  wrong  produce  no  effect 
upon  him.  The  unhealthy  omniscience  with  which  he 
suggestionises  himself  doubtless  prevents  him  from 
being  able  to  see  things  in  their  proper  light.  The 
reign  of  Nicholas  is,  therefore,  a  combination  of  two 
disastrous  evils  :  in  the  first  place,  the  wall  which  sepa- 
rates him  from  the  nation  sets  him  beyond  the  reach 
of  any  clear  comprehension  of  the  very  things  which  he 
is  supposed  to  manage  ;  in  the  second,  if  he  placed  him- 
self above  the  influences  of  his  eyitourage,  his  obtuseness 
would  lead  him  into  other  faults  the  more  disastrous 
since  his  megalomania  prevents  him  from  remedying  his 
mistakes  on  any  consideration  whatever. 

His  obstinacy  is,  no  doubt,  mainly  caused  by  fear  of 
the  Revolutionaries,  which  has  led  him  to  cover  the 
most  criminal  acts  of  his  officials  with  the  mantle  of 
supreme  authority.  An  amusing  instance  of  this  state 
of  affairs  appears  in  the  Homeric  struggle  which  took 
place  between  Kleigels  and  his  famous  predecessor  in 
the  post  of  Governor-General  of  Kieff,  General  Drago- 
miroff,  who  had  the  insolence  to  jeer  at  the  Tsar's 
terrors  and  the  grotesque  manoeuvres  of  his  Chief  of 
Police.  At  the  time  when  Kleigels  was  massacring 
the  students  of  St.  Petersburg,  the  Kicff  students  were 
also  organising  a  manifestation.  The  Governor  of  the 
town.  General  Cherkoff,  asked  Dragomiroff  for  troops 
in  order  to  "  repress  the  revolt."  The  latter  refused, 
Cherkoff  immediately  telegraphed  to  his  friend  Kleigels, 
who  hastened  to  the  Tsar  and  explained  that  Kieff  was 
running  with  blood  and  fire,  and  that  Dragomiroff 
refused  to  call  out  his  troops.  The  Tsar  at  once  gave 
Dragomiroff  a  formal  order  to  intervene  with  "the  troops 
which  he  had  at  his  disposal."  Thereupon,  the  old  wag 
sounded  the  alarm  at  midnii^ht  in  all  the  barracks  of  the 


62  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

district.  By  the  morning  Kieff  had  become  a  miHtary 
camp  ;  the  artillery  blocked  the  principal  streets,  and 
masses  of  infantry  filled  the  centre  of  the  town.  By 
1 1  A.M.  the  frightened  inhabitants  found  themselves 
in  the  midst  of  an  army  of  45,000  men  !  Dragomiroff, 
in  a  carriage,  appeared  on  the  scene,  and  was  cheered 
by  everybody,  students  included.  Passing  quietly  in 
front  of  the  troops  he  dismissed  them,  and  on  his  return 
despatched  the  following  message  to  the  Tsar  :  "  I  con- 
centrated my  troops.  I  did  not  meet  the  enemy.  I 
have  dismissed  my  troops.  Cost :  140,000  roubles. — 
Dragomiroff."  Both  the  Tsar  and  Kleigels  were  furious, 
and  Dragomiroff  was  ordered  to  St.  Petersburg,  where 
he  was  received  at  the  railway  station  by  Kleigels,  who 
had  just  perpetrated  his  massacres.  Dragomiroff  accosted 
him  thus:  "Kleigels,  I  am  your  superior.  It  is  your 
duty  to  receive  me  in  full  uniform."  "  But  I  Jiave  got  it 
on,"  replied  the  other,  humbly.  "  You  scoundrel ! " 
shouted  the  old  soldier,  "  you  have  forgotten  the  most 
essential  part  of  it,  your  knout !  " 

That  same  evening  there  was  a  violent  scene  between 
Dragomiroff  and  the  Tsar,  who  accused  him  of  not 
having  protected  him.  The  General  left  in  a  rage. 
"  One  cannot  protect  anyone  who  is  scared  at  every- 
thing and  frightened  without  a  cause,"  were  his  last 
words.  With  this  he  returned  quietly  to  Kieff.  Nicho- 
las dared  not  proceed  openly  against  him  on  account 
of  his  immense  popularity,  but  he  always  retained  a 
deep  grudge  against  the  General,  and  seized  an  early 
opportunity  of  placing  the  garrison  at  Kieff  under  the 
direct  command  of  Cherkoff. 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  61, 

Nicholas  II.  and  the  Malversation  of  Funds. 

With  such  a  temperament,  it  is  not,  after  all,  remark- 
able that  Nicholas  II.  should  often  have  fallen  into  the 
traps  prepared  for  him  by  interested  officials :  Plehve 
especially  was  a  past-master  in  the  art  of  "  dishing  "  the 
Tsar,  One  of  the  most  ludicrous  cases  of  this  kind 
occurred  at  the  beginning  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War, 
and  it  is  the  more  interesting  as  it  shows  that  the 
Bureaucratic  caste  would  rather  sec  the  Tsar  convinced 
of  the  hatred  of  his  people  than  of  their  affection,  and 
moreover  does  not  hesitate,  if  necessary,  to  suppress  the 
slightest  Liberal  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  Sovereign, 
by  throwing  him  into  a  state  of  dire  nervous  terror. 

A  confidant  of  Nicholas — the  same  who  considers 
that  Russian  legislation  should  consist  entirely  in  the 
prohibition  of  all  kinds  of  labour — had  obtained  an 
Imperial  order  concerning  a  slight  change  in  the 
Censorship.  Plehve  desired  to  make  out  that  this  was 
the  commencement  of  the  Revolution  :  and  succeeded  in 
doing  so.  He  had  already  organised  some  "  patriotic 
manifestations  "  at  St.  Petersburg  after  the  attack  on 
Port  Arthur,  and  had  even  announced  to  the  Tsar  that 
the  students  were  coming  to  cheer  him  in  front  of  the 
Winter  Palace  ;  to  which  effect  he  had  distributed 
seven  hundred  students'  uniforms  to  his  agents.  (In 
Russia  everybody,  students,  professors,  doctors, 
engineers,  in  fact,  every  person,  is  compelled  to  wear 
a  uniform,  the  better  to  be  watched  by  the  police.) 
He  was  thus  able  to  turn  this  organised  "  patriotic 
manifestation  "  into  a  "  Revolutionary  manifestation  "  : 
the  "students"  cried,  "Long  live  the  liberty  of  the 
Press  !  "  and  when  they  arrived  at  the  Square,  in  front  of 
the    Palace,    Plehve   dispersed    them    by    a    brigade    of 


64  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

gendarmes.  On  the  same  day  he  reported  the  matter 
to  the  Tsar,  showing  that  even  the  sHghtest  promise 
of  reform  caused  the  youths  to  lose  all  feeling  of 
patriotism,  to  replace  it  by  subversive  ideas.  He  thus 
induced  the  Tsar  to  abrogate  his  previous  order. 

By  the  aid  of  an  interminable  series  of  mystifications 
and  machinations  previously  planned  by  the  interested 
parties,  and  of  "  proofs  "  skilfully  arranged  to  show  the 
Tsar  that  the  Bureaucratic  clique  allied  with  the  Grand 
Dukes  are  alone  to  be  trusted,  Nicholas  has  succeeded, 
with  the  aid  of  his  obstinate  megalomaniacal  "  martyr- 
dom," in  glossing  over  all  abuses  and  all  peculations 
underlying  this  regime,  and  in  actually  screening  the 
culprits  under  the  pretext  that  the  victims  are  attacking 
established  order.  It  is  true  that  he  is  seldom  called 
upon  to  judge  the  abominations  committed  in  his  name; 
there  are,  however,  some  few  examples  even  of  this. 
The  general  result  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
occurrence. 

Some  years  ago  a  question  arose  as  to  the  advisability 
of  entrusting  the  Director  of  one  of  the  largest  P"inancial 
Associations  of  Russia  with  the  management  of  the  Im- 
perial Bank.  The  Tsar  sent  for  this  functionary.  The 
financier  respectfully  pointed  out  that  his  present  income 
was  twice  that  to  be  derived  from  the  post  which  had 
been  offered  to  him. 

"  But  I  think  that  there  are  some  secondary  fees  and 
subsidies,"  said  the  Tsar. 

"  That  is  all  very  well  for  those  who  prefer  gratuities 
to  the  interests  of  the  State,  but  I  am  too  old  for  that." 

The  Tsar  was  stupefied  at  first,  and  then  became 
furious. 

"  And  you  will  not  do  what  everybody  else  does  ? 
Doiirak  !     Pachol !     Idiot ! — Away  with  you  I  " 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  65 

In  other  words  this  shows  that  the  Tsar  considers 
extortion  and  robbery  on  the  part  of  the  high  Bureaucracy 
to  be  a  prerogative  of  the  aristocracy  ;  and  explains  many 
things.  One  only  wonders  that,  as  the  principle  is  so 
clearly  established,  Nicholas  should,  on  two  or  three 
occasions,  have  found  himself  obliged  to  disavow  it. 
In  these  cases,  however,  it  was  a  matter  of  foreign 
pressure.  This  notably  occurred  with  certain  extensive 
frauds  committed  by  Trepoff,  the  Governor  of  Moscow, 
in  complicity  with  his  relative  the  Grand  Duke  Serge, 
the  Governor-General,  against  an  important  English  firm 
of  manufacturers.  This  affair,  at  the  same  time,  gives 
us  some  notion  of  how  these  personages — who  will  be 
portrayed  below — imagined  they  were  going  to  exter- 
minate Socialism. 

As  the  Director  of  the  Artisans'  Syndicates,  which 
had  been  founded  by  Zubatoff  for  the  purpose  of  keep- 
ing a  watch  on  the  Socialists,  he  had  introduced  spies 
amongst  the  workmen  in  the  principal  factories.  The 
English  manufacturer  above-mentioned  spotted  the  trick, 
and  turned  the  wolves  out  of  the  fold.  Trepoff  immedi- 
ately threatened  him  with  a  general  strike  if  he  did  not 
re-engage  them  ;  but  the  Englishman  held  firm,  and 
even  refused  to  receive  a  delegation  of  "  workmen  "  sent 
by  Trepoff.  Hence  the  celebrated  strike  of  1902. 
Trepoff  then  threatened  to  close  the  factory  and  to 
expel  the  manufacturer — a  threat  which,  by-the-bye,  he 
refused  to  repeat  in  writing.  The  Englishman,  suspect- 
ing the  truth,  then  received  the  delegates,  who,  before 
entering  on  the  industrial  situation,  demanded  a  payment 
of  no  less  than  100,000  roubles  (about  ;^io,ooo) !  With 
the  proofs  of  the  fraud  in  his  hands,  the  manufacturer, 
at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening,  took  the  express  train  for 
Petersburg.     Trepoff  followed    him    at   eleven   o'clock 

F 


66  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

in  the  express,  but  arrived  an  hour  later.  The  EngUsh 
man  profited  by  the  start  to  hasten  to  the  Ministry 
accompanied  by  his  Ambassador,  and  Trepoff,  as  may 
well  be  imagined,  got  the  reverse  of  an  agreeable 
reception  from  his  superiors.  The  Tsar  gave  vent  to 
his  indignation,  and  this  past-master  of  fraud  had  to 
apologise  to  the  manufacturer.  The  strike,  however, 
lasted  another  month  without  any  other  result  than  that 
of  impoverishing  thousands  of  workmen  and  injuring 
the  industry  of  Moscow  for  two  years. 

England  has  brought  no  luck  to  Trepoff  or  the  Tsar  ; 
she  forced  a  second  exposure  of  Trepoff,  under  still 
more  serious  conditions.  What  would  Nicholas  not  have 
given  for  this  affair  to  have  been  the  work  of  a  Russian, 
or,  at  least,  of  a  submissive  French  friend  and  ally  ! 
Fear,  the  eternal  fear  of  revolution  and  of  violent  death, 
has  played  sad  havoc  with  Trepoff  and  his  master. 

The  dreadful  fate  which  he  expected  would  over- 
whelm him,  as  a  just  retribution,  made  him  the  terror  of 
Moscow.  It  is  impossible  to  give  even  an  approximate 
estimate  of  the  number  of  victims  run  over  by  his  carriage, 
as  he  drove  at  top  speed  through  the  most  frequented 
streets.  One  day,  however,  a  cab  got  in  his  way. 
Beside  himself  at  such  audacity,  Trepoff  swore  at  and 
assaulted  the  passenger,  who  did  not  understand  a  word 
of  Russian.  At  the  police-station  to  which  he  was 
dragged,  it  was  found  that  this  gentleman  was  nothing 
less  than  an  English  duke,  a  relative  of  the  Queen ! 
Is  it  necessary  to  add  that,  after  an  exchange  of  des- 
patches with  the  Tsar,  Trepoff  presented  himself  next 
day  in  full  uniform  to  offer  his  humblest  apologies  to 
His  Grace  ? 

A  third  case  in  which  Nicholas  reluctantly  denounced 
the  peculators,  is  connected   with   the   same   group  of 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  67 

Moscow  scoundrels,  the  Grand  Duke  Serge,  Trepoff, 
and  BuHguine,  Civil  Governor,  who  was  made  Minister 
of  the  Interior  in  January,  1905,  after  the  massacres  of 
Petersburg.  This  triad  had  the  bad  luck  to  get 
entangled  with  foreign  Governments.  The  matter 
in  question,  which  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the 
recall  of  Serge  in  1904,  concerned  the  Post  Office.  For 
some  time  past,  enormous  quantities  of  registered  letters 
had  disappeared  ;  innumerable  complaints  poured  in 
from  all  sides,  those  coming  from  Russia  being  in- 
variably thrown  into  the  waste-paper  basket.  The 
great  mistake  was  that  the  same  was  done  with  those 
from  the  subjects  of  two  great  democracies  which  are 
not  subject  to  Tsardom.  These  countries,  since  their 
complaints  bore  no  fruit,  sought  for  diplomatic  redress, 
and  as  their  Embassies  represented  their  countries  and 
not  Tsardom  (as  sometimes  happens),  they  gave  the 
Government  of  Nicholas  considerable  trouble.  An  official 
was  sent  to  Moscow,  and  charged  to  overhaul  the  in- 
ventory of  documents  kept  at  the  Post  Office  :  this 
official  was  a  dunderhead.  Instead  of  taking  his  in- 
structions (and  his  pay)  from  Serge,  Trepoff,  and 
Buliguine,  he  accomplished  his  mission,  and  found 
several  thousands  of  Post  Office  orders  and  other  valu- 
ables duly  endorsed,  not  by  the  parties  for  whom  they 
were  intended,  but,  fraudulently,  by  the  high  officials 
of  Moscow,  The  sums  which  had  been  thus  appro- 
priated amounted  to  more  than  two  million  roubles. 
It  was  decided  that  St.  Petersburg  should  repay  the 
foreigners,  and  the  Tsar  was  so  furious  that  for  once  he 
did  not  dismiss  honest  officials,  but  showed  his  good 
faith  by  punishing  the  Muscovite  trio.  This  was  merely 
an  act  of  international  deference,  since  his  megalomania 
extends  only  to  the  borders  of  the  Russian  Empire,  and 

F  2 


68  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

European  opinion  scares  him :  hence  his  fourfold 
censure.  Hence,  also,  the  terror  of  one  of  the  aides- 
de-camp,  who  one  day  (August,  1904)  returned  to  his 
house  trembling  and  nearly  out  of  his  mind,  and 
related  to  his  wife  the  scene  which  he  had  witnessed. 
Entering  the  Tsar's  study,  he  saw  him,  pale,  pointing  to 
something  on  his  table,  and  commanding  him  to  summon 
General  Hesse,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Palace.  This 
was  at  Peterhof  What  was  it  ?  A  bomb  ?  No ! 
something  far  worse !  Copies  of  the  Vorwdrts  of 
Berlin,  the  Aiirore  of  Paris,  and  the  Tribune  Russe 
had  been  placed  before  him  by  criminal  hands  !  After 
reading  the  remarks  on  the  death  of  Plehve  the  Tsar  burst 
into  tears,  and  the  palace  was  turned  upside  down.  .  .  . 
Nicholas  has  never  troubled  himself  as  to  inter- 
Russian  peculations.  Nevertheless,  there  are  instances 
enough  to  force  any  man  of  sound  mind  to  inflict 
punishment  ;  but  his  fears  deter  him.  We  will  mention 
only  one  instance  to  give  an  idea  of  the  Tsar's  opinion  of 
"  patriotic  theft."  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War.  Kuropatkin,  on  arriving  in  Manchuria, 
peremptorily  demanded  thirty-six  mountain  guns  which 
he  had  on  his  lists  but  not  in  his  possession.  It  was 
known  that  Creuzot  had  delivered  at  least  twelve  of  them 
a  short  time  before.  Where  were  they  ?  They  were 
demanded  of  General  Altvater,  second  Chief  of  Staff 
at  St.  Petersburg.  Of  course  he  "  knew  nothing,"  but 
sent  a  bullet,  not  through  his  head,  but  through  the 
ceiling  of  his  office.  This  saved  him  in  all  senses.  He 
admitted  that  the  guns  existed,  but  stated  that,  being  in 
need  of  money,  he  had  sent  them  to  Warsaw,  where  they 
had  been  "  put  up  the  spout  "  with  a  dealer  in  metals. 
The  Tsar  caused  the  notice  of  the  attempted  suicide  to  be 
disclaimed,  so  as  not  to  render  his  army  ridiculous  at  the 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  69 

beginning  of  the  war,  pensioned  the  worthy  general, 
redeemed  the  guns,  and  sent  them  to  Manchuria  at  the 
very  moment  when  Kuropatkin  for  want  of  these  moun- 
tain-guns suffered  irreparable  defeat  on  the  Yalu  and 
Ouafan-Ku. 


The  Irresponsible  Autocrat. 

Nicholas  has  thus  lent  himself  to  innumerable  pitiful 
comedies,  under  circumstances  which,  if  they  do  not 
prove  a  desire  to  do  harm,  justify  us  at  least  in  doubt- 
ing his  good  faith.  Let  us  place  his  obstinacy,  his 
accesses  of  energy,  and  his  periods  of  unreasonable 
sentimentality  to  the  account  of  his  pathological  mental 
condition.  Let  us  attribute  to  the  same  cause  the  ex- 
traordinary manifestations  of  "  favour  "  promulgated  on 
the  occasion  of  the  birth  of  his  son,  in  which  he  pro- 
claimed amnesty  for  crimes  of  opinion  dating  back  more 
than  fifteen  years,  and  ...  no  longer  to  be  traced  ;  in  which 
he  invited  political  refugees  "  to  return  to  their  homes  " — 
that  is,  since  those  unhappy  wights  had  been  condemned 
to  deportation  without  judgment,  they  were  to  offer 
themselves  for  transportation  to  Siberia;  while  he  caused 
arrears  of  taxes  amounting  to  ^24,000,000  to  be  re- 
mitted to  the  peasants,  which  it  had  been  impossible 
to  collect  because  .  .  .  the  peasant  for  many  years  has 
had  absolutely  nothing  to  give  the  tax  collectors. 

The  Xsar  who  hopes  to  make  himself  beloved  by 
his  people  by  such  lucubrations, — the  Tsar  who,  at  the 
same  time,  is  transfixed  with  his  unreasonable  fear  of  as- 
sassination, which  also  is  becoming  more  and  more  prob- 
able,—  theTsar  who  believes  himself  to  be  omniscient,  who 
is  "  infallible  in  his  acts,"  and  who,  for  that  reason,  seeks 
the  blind  confidence  of  his  people, — this  same  Tsar  has 


70  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

never  had  the  courage  to  show  his  confidence  in  his 
people  from  the  moment  when,  with  tearful  pride,  he 
promised  a  "  policy  of  confidence."  For  years  past  he 
has  never  left  the  Winter  Palace  by  the  door  at  which 
he  is  expected.  A  group  of  Court  equipages  drawn  up 
outside  one  of  the  numerous  entrances  to  the  Palace 
forms  a  counter-attraction  for  the  people,  and  enables 
his  Majesty  to  drive  away  secretly  from  a  side-door. 
The  picture  is  familiar.  We  all  know  that  "  the  modesty 
of  Nicholas  II.  is  proverbial  "  ! 

All  this  may  be  the  unhappy  product  of  moral  irre- 
sponsibility due  to  pathological  causes.  Historical  pro- 
gress, nevertheless,  takes  no  account  of  the  dementia 
of  a  Nero  or  a  Caligula,  but  only  of  the  too  tangible 
results  of  his  demeanour  as  a  monarch.  It  will  be  the 
same  with  Nicholas.  If  he  were  logical  he  would 
become  a  Revolutionary ;  but  this  is  impossible,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  his  warped  brain  does  not  per- 
mit him  to  see  things  in  their  true  proportion.  And 
even  if  he  could,  the  result  would  be  the  same,  for  he 
is  surrounded  by  an  impenetrable  barrier  which  domi- 
nates him  ;  his  Grand  Ducal  relations  and  their  party 
terrorise  him,  exploit  him,  annihilate  him,  and  would 
not  hesitate  to  bring  about  his  death  if  he  signed  a 
single  Liberal  Act  which  might  injure  their  power  or 
diminish  their  revenues.  Influenced  by  their  own  mate- 
rial interests,  these  relatives  constitute  the  stronghold 
of  the  Counter-Revolution,  and  they  would  combat  en- 
franchisement with  even  greater  energy  if  only  they  were 
more  logical.  Nicholas — the  man — is  deserving  of  pity. 
It  is  his  political  role  alone  that  is  iniquitous.  His  rela- 
tives, the  Grand  Dukes — politically  non-existent  in  the 
presence  of  the  Tsar,  who  is  alone  responsible — are  mere 
individuals  .  .  .  and  as  such  their  conduct  is  scandalous. 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    71 

The  Grand  Dukes. 

The  group  of  persons  related  to  the  Tsar — the  Grand 
Ducal  clique — suffer,  one  and  all,  from  a  malady  peculiar 
to  Russia  and  to  the  Holstein-Gottorp  dynasty.  An 
abundant  progeny  in  one  or  several  generations  of 
monarchs  is  a  source  of  weakness  and  trouble  to  all 
dynasties.  When  a  Court  is  encumbered  with  a  number 
of  idle  Royalties,  the  Head  of  the  Dynasty  is  at  a  loss 
how  to  utilise  or  to  provide  for  them — a  state  of  affairs 
which  gives  rise  to  regrettable  rivalries ;  the  Royal 
revenues  are  divided  up  amongst  a  number  of  people, 
each  of  whom  considers  himself  to  be  more  or  less  at  a  dis- 
advantage. The  total  number  of  irresponsible  councillors 
eventually  becomes  a  public  danger.  Guided,  not  by 
considerations  of  policy,  but  solely  by  family  interests, 
their  influence  in  affairs  of  State  is  characterised  by 
increasing  efforts  to  exploit  the  State  for  their  own 
political  welfare,  to  keep  the  nation  alive  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  supporting  the  Court  and  exalting  the  power 
of  the  Monarch,  and  to  induce  the  latter  to  commit  acts 
in  favour  of  their  own  material  and  social  advantage,  to 
the  detriment  of  the  people.  The  Head  of  the  Dynasty 
falls  more  and  more  under  the  influence  of  these  family 
advisers,  whom  he  cannot  discard  without  damaging  his 
own  prestige.  His  moral  character  and  independence 
naturally  deteriorate,  since  on  one  point  at  least  the 
relatives,  who  live  at  his  expense,  are  all  agreed  :  their 
common  interests  keep  the  Monarch  from  his  people,  and 
as  much  as  possible  in  their  own  hands.  This  they  can 
only  do  by  persuading  him  that  they,  and  they  alone, 
are  the  true  champions  of  Imperial  power. 

The  results  of  this  system  are  well  illustrated,  among 
many  other  historical  examples,  in  the  downfall  of  the  all- 


72  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

powerful  Dynasty  of  Genghiz  Khan, whose  swift  and  abso- 
lute decay  stands  as  the  prototype  of  all  similar  dynastic 
tragedies.  Even  there,  however,  the  "  household  regime  " 
was  far  less  grievous  than  it  is  with  the  Holstein-Gottorps 
of  to-day.  Here  the  Grand  Ducal  regime  is  no  longer 
exercised  by  capable  soldiers  or  prudent  politicians  in  the 
legitimate  interests  of  the  Crown,  but  by  a  set  of 
degenerates  who  try  to  make  a  pretext  of  the  military 
or  political  interests  of  the  Tsar  in  order  to  insure 
themselves  the  material  and  moral  means  of  gratifying 
their  disreputable  passions. 

In  reality,  all  these  Tsars  in  partibus — handicapped  by 
their  Royal  birth — have,  with  their  following  of  relatives, 
personal  friends,  sycophants,  and  servants,  for  nearly 
half  a  century  been  in  an  utterly  false  position.  At  the 
very  time  when  their  number  had  given  them  an 
astonishing  importance,  the  famous  reforms  of  Alexander 
11.  deprived  them  of  the  possibility  of  installing  them- 
selves as  officials  in  the  most  important  administrative 
posts  of  the  Empire. 

They  were,  in  a  measure,  crushed  between  the  power 
of  the  Monarch  and  that  of  the  Bureaucratic  Party, 
whose  various  phases  are  described  below.  The  advent 
of  this  party  practically  put  them  in  the  shade.  Their 
ranks,  moreover,  were  increased  by  their  numerous 
progeny,  while  the  Bureaucracy  managed  to  amass 
enormous  powers,  which  were  irresistible,  imperceptible, 
but  too  real  not  to  paralyse  the  family  influence  they 
were  constantly  trying  to  impose  upon  the  Sovereign. 
Under  these  conditions,  their  anxiety  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  power  could  not  but  impel  them  into  a 
course  which  is  perhaps  without  parallel  in  history.  They 
were  forced  to  come  to  a  tacit  understanding  with  the 
Bureaucracy,  and  if  they  could  not  control  it,  they  could, 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  73 

at  all  events,  profit  by  their  unfettered  power  to  fill  the 
office  of  benevolent  intermediaries  between  the  office- 
holders— whose  official  functions  alone  put  them  into 
immediate  contact  with  the  Tsar — and  the  latter  him- 
self, who,  in  private  life,  is  accessible  to  the  advice  and 
the  intrigues  of  his  relatives. 

Leaders  of  Rank  and  File. 

The  following  chapter  will  furnish  the  details  of  this 
alliance  between  the  Grand  Dukes  and  the  Bureaucracy. 
The  results  of  this  hybrid  association  in  regard  to  the 
Dynasty  and  to  Tsardom  belong,  strictly  speaking,  to 
the  history  of  the  decay  of  the  dynasty.  Given  the 
triple  necessities  of  the  Grand  Dukes  to  vindicate 
the  autocracy  of  the  Tsar,  which  is  their  sole  guarantee 
for  their  own  prestige  and  revenues,  to  uphold  the 
Bureaucracy  which  retains  the  administrative  power 
for  practical  purposes,  and  to  defend  themselves  against 
the  ill-humour  of  the  first  and  the  arrogance  of  the 
second,  their  policy  of  action  must,  theoretically,  proceed 
from  three  very  simple  principles.  These  are  :  to  in- 
trigue against  the  Tsar,  to  terrorise  the  Bureaucracy 
by  exploiting  their  own  influence  with  the  Autocrat,  and 
to  manipulate  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  one  party  or 
the  other — thus  implying  complicity  with  the  crimes  of 
the  officials,  and  a  kind  of  praetorian  insolence  towards 
the  sovereign.  This  general  characterisation  of  the 
Grand  Dukes  is  absolutely  borne  out  by  the  reality. 

The  Grand  Ducal  party  consists,  in  1905,  of  a  number 
of  more  or  less  distant  relatives  of  the  Tsar,  amounting 
(women  and  children  included)  to  more  than  a  hundred 
persons,  who  are,  in  their  turn,  surrounded  by  several 
thousand    individuals,   courtiers,    sycophants,    men    of 


74  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

business,  and  favourites,  who,  without  being  actually 
seated  around  the  groaning  board  of  the  Bureaucracy, 
live  entirely  at  its  expense,  and  go  as  much  by  their 
number  as  by  their  social  position  to  make  up  a  veritable 
bodyguard  to  the  party,  with  orders  to  play  the  part  of 
"  the  loyal  '  nation,' "  before  the  Sovereign,  of  "  dynastic 
authority  "  before  the  people.  It  is  for  the  rest  only  the 
heads  of  this  group  who  are  worthy  of  interest.  The 
rank  and  file  may  be  passed  by  in  silence — the  more  so 
as  their  moral  and  physical  blemishes,  bequeathed  to 
them  by  the  chiefs  of  the  dynasty,  forbid  any  decent 
person  to  inquire  into  their  private  lives.  The  .leading 
personages,  on  the  contrary,  cannot  invoke  this  privilege, 
since  their  peccadillos  are  of  national  importance,  and  in 
last  resort  it  is  in  order  to  gratify  their  morbid  cravings 
that  they  terrorise  both  Tsar  and  people. 

These  persons  number  a  dozen  at  most ;  and  the  worst 
offenders,  as  is  to  be  expected  in  a  country  like  Russia 
where  the  superannuated  notion  of  the  patriarch  survives, 
are  just  those  who  have  known  how  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  respect  due  to  age,  and  the  prestige  appertaining 
to  a  former  generation.  This  was  particularly  easy  with 
a  young  monarch  who  came  to  the  throne  at  a  time 
when  his  father's  generation  was  still  in  the  prime  of 
life.  And  Nicholas  was  the  more  embarrassed  inasmuch 
as  his  grandfather  Alexander  II.  and  his  great-uncle 
Michael  have  been  remarkably  prolific.  Nicholas  II.  has 
a  considerable  number  of  uncles,  and  in  addition  to  their 
personal  ascendency  over  him  they  can  domineer  over 
their  nephew  by  constituting  themselves  interpreters  of 
the  views  and  ideas  of  the  two  precedingiEmperors,  whose 
political  will  and  testament  they  pretend  to  possess. 

Despite  the  jealousies  and  dissensions  which  obtain 
within    this    avuncular    oligarchy,   they   are   united   in 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    75 

their  efforts  to  hold  the  Tsar  in  the  bondage  of  a  reac- 
tionary poHcy,  and  that  for  two  reasons.  Autocracy 
alone  enables  them  to  apportion  the  finances  of  the 
.State,  and  of  these  they  stand  in  need,  since  their  mode 
of  life  does  not  admit  of  their  living  upon  the  few 
millions  a  year  which  the  Tsar  allows  them  out  of  the 
royal  appanages.  On  the  jther  hand.  Autocracy  alone 
protects  them  from  the  attacks  of  the  Nation,  by  elevat- 
ing them  above^the  laws  of  the  ordinary  community.  By 
this  fact  they  are  practically  irresponsible,  even  in  matters 
of  common  law,  while  absolute  impunity  is  assured  to 
them,  since  the  Tsar  alone — in  virtue  of  an  ancient 
patriarchal  law  imported  into  Russia  by  the  Mongols — 
has  the  right  to  reprimand  or  punish  them. 

The  choicest  official  positions  are  occupied  by  half- 
a-dozen  of  these  uncles,  whose  names  are  appended  in 
the  order  of  their  importance — Vladimir,  Serge,  Alexis 
(all  three  sons  of  Alexander  II.),  Alexander  Mikhail- 
ovitch  and  Nicholas  Nikolaievitch.  The  least  signifi- 
cant is  of  course  Constantine  Constantinovitch,  the  only 
Grand  Duke  whose  intellectual  culture  is  above  the 
average,  who  is  a  poet  of  distinction,  a  judge  and  patron 
of  the  fine  arts,  and  who  keeps  pace  with  European  ideas. 

Serge. 
One  of  the  leaders  of  the  clique  has  ceased  to  exercise 
his  dire  influence  and  his  criminal  activity,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  terrorist  outrage  in  February,  1905.  Serge 
was  struck  down  at  the  very  moment  in  which  he 
had  virtually  taken  the  reins  of  power  out  of  the  feeble 
hands  of  Nicholas.  lie  was  sapped  by  the  tuberculosis 
which  in  its  latent  period  had  manifested  the  entire 
psychosis  characteristic  of  this  disease,  intermittent 
euphoria  and   megalomania,  a   total   absence  of  moral 


76  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

sense,  exaggerated  erotomania  and  various  superstitions. 
He  had  succeeded  in  marrying  his  wife's  sister  to  the 
Tsar,  Nicholas,  and  was  the  more  intimate  with  the 
Autocrat,  inasmuch  as  the  disparity  of  age  between 
them  was  inconsiderable.  He  accordingly  reaped  a  har- 
vest of  vast  estates,  exclusive  appanages,  and  a  multi- 
plicity of  handsome  sinecures  with  their  corresponding 
perquisites.  His  annual  income  exceeded  ;^320,0C)0.  As, 
however,  he  showed  the  mania  for  dissipation  common  to 
all  his  family,  and  the  gratification  of  his  lusts  cost  him 
incredible  sums,  he  was  perpetually  in  pecuniary  diffi- 
culties, and  did  not  hesitate  to  become  a  party  to  bureau- 
cratic peculation,  which  he  was  supposed  to  repress  by 
his  authority.  His  two  most  notable  malversations,  with 
the  exception  of  the  postal  thefts  at  Moscow,  relate  to 
the  period  prior  to  his  recall  from  the  position  of 
Governor-General  of  Moscow. 

In  the  Morozoff  scandal  he  had  the  impudence  to 
summon  this  multi-millionaire  and  other  Moscow  manu- 
facturers to  his  house,  for  the  purpose  of  ordering  them 
to  subscribe  more  generously  to  the  Red  Cross  and 
other  war  funds.  Morozoff  declared  his  readiness  to 
spend  considerable  sums  on  condition  that  he  himself 
took  part  in  their  administration,  "  to  make  sure  that 
his  donations  were  employed  for  the  patriotic  objects 
indicated."  Serge  was  at  the  head  of  this  administrative 
committee. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  such  language?  "  shouted  Serge. 

"  I  mean  that  the  funds  already  subscribed  have  not 
been  utilised  as  I  was  given  to  understand  they  would  be." 

"  You  are  an  insolent  liar  !  " 

"  I  can  prove  to  your  Imperial  Highness,  that  I  have 
already  given  articles  of  clothing,  made  in  my  own 
factories,  to  the  value  of  a  million  roubles,  and  that  I 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    77 

could  have  bought  them  back  half-price  in  the  shops  at 
Moscow." 

"Infamous  scoundrel!  If  you  don't  apologise,  I  will 
have  you  arrested  and  sent  over  the  frontier  ! " 

"  I  have  nothing  to  apologise  for,  and  I  am  ready  to  go ; 
but  of  course  I  shall  close  my  works,  and  discharge  my 
workmen." 

"  You  be  d ' 

The  conversation,  reported  in  this  form  by  someone 
who  was  present,  had  further  consequences.  Morozoff 
telegraphed  to  the  Minister  of  Finance,  who  informed 
the  Tsar.  Had  the  65,000  workmen  been  discharged  for 
such  a  reason  it  would  obviously  have  created  a  disaster. 
Morozoff  remained  :  it  was  Serge  who  left  Moscow  a 
month  later. 

His  departure  was  also  due  to  a  more  delicate  affair. 
Serge  refused  the  renewal  of  a  license  to  a  lady  who 
conducted  perfectly  respectable  dancing  classes,  which 
were  attended  by  young  girls  of  good  family.  The 
establishment  was  in  a  flourishing  condition.  Serge, 
incited  by  his  erotic  mania  and  lust  for  money- 
making,  invited  the  lady  in  question  to  arrange  "  assigna- 
tions "  for  him  with  some  of  the  prettiest  of  her 
pupils.  As  she  indignantly  refused  to  have  any  dealings 
of  this  nature,  he  tried  to  blackmail  her  and  demanded  a 
large  sum  under  the  threat  of  accusing  her  of  being  a 
procuress.  She  still  refused.  The  license  was  withdrawn 
and  this  gave  her  the  opportunity  of  explaining  the 
affair  to  some  of  the  members  of  the  aristocracy,  who 
conveyed  the  story  to  St.  Petersburg.  The  Tsar  was 
furiously  angry,  and  this  was  Serge's  last  act  of  blackmail. 

Sadism,  along  with  money,  was  his  ruling  passion 
and  from  his  youth  up  this  vice  had  preyed  upon  him. 
The  commencement  of  his  official  career  was  marked  by 
an  especially  reprehensible  display  of  his  passions. 


78  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Under  the  title  of  "  Inspector  of  the  Institutions  of 
Mary,"  a  kind  of  Comptroller  of  the  Imperial  Orphanages, 
he  "  inspected  "  one  of  these  houses, — where  the  orphan 
girls  of  the  bureaucracy  are  brought  up  at  the  expense 
of  the  State, — to  such  purpose  that  a  girl  of  good  family 
had  to  complain  of  the  heinous  crime  which  the  brother  of 
the  Tsar  (then  Alexander  III.)  had  perpetrated  on  her. 
His  instant  dismissal  became  obligatory  ;  but,  as  he  was 
both  a  coward  and  a  sneak,  he  refused  to  fight  a  young 
officer  who  was  related  to  the  victim,  and  he  was  sent 
to  travel  abroad ! 

In  Palestine  he  developed  his  religious  tendencies  in 
the  form  of  ridiculous  superstitions,  combined  with  a 
furious  Anti-Semitism. 

He  returned  more  than  ever  the  ardent  disciple  of 
Pobiedonostsefif,  and  applied  himself,  as  soon  as  he  was 
appointed  to  Moscow,  to  putting  all  his  theories  into 
practice.  He  founded  and  conducted  a  Society  for 
Pilgrimage  to  Palestine,  the  treasury  of  which,  being 
richly  endowed  by  donations  of  a  somewhat  compulsory 
nature,  enabled  a  few  peasants  to  be  sent  annually  to  the 
holy  places,  and  also,  incidentally,  filled  up  the  great 
breaches  in  the  Grand  Ducal  exchequer.  At  the  same 
time  he  purged  the  Orthodox  Holy  City  of  the  assassins 
of  Christ.  He  next  extorted  several  hundred  thousand 
roubles  from  certain  rich  Jews  who  were  affected  by  his 
laws  of  expulsion. 

To  one  of  their  deputations  he  declared  that  "  all 
Jews  ought  to  be  crucified,"  but  he  was  open  to  ac- 
cept money,  and  subsequently  expelled  only  those  who 
could  not  advance  him  large  sums  without  receipt.  In 
connection  with  the  law  of  expulsion,  however,  he 
introduced  two  highly  characteristic  exceptions. 

One  was  in  reference  to  young  Jewish  girls.  These  are 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    79 

only  admitted  to  live  in  Moscow  if  they  inscribe  their 
names  on  the  registers  of  prostitutes,  and  this  involves 
medical  visits,  along  with  frequent  affronts,  from  so-called 
"  doctors  "  and  "  inspectors."  His  Highness  sometimes 
deigned, — in  the  interests  of  good  government, — to  assist 
in  these  private  visitations.  The  other  exception 
referred  to  little  Jewish  boys  employed  as  apprentices  or 
as  grooms.  All  other  classes  of  Jew  being  useless 
at  the  residence  of  the  Tsar's  uncle,  it  was  a  matter  of 
course  that  they  should  be  driven  back  to  their  Ghettos 
in  the  south-west  of  Russia. 

The  same  occurred  with  the  workwomen  and  female 
students,  who  solicited  the  title  of  "  unfortunates,"  in 
order  that  they  might  gain  their  living  in  Moscow,  or  be 
allowed  to  work  ! 

Whenever  it  was  proved  that  a  Jewess  was  not  a 
professional  prostitute,  she  was  expelled, — more  often, 
undoubtedly,  after  she  had  been  outraged.  One  of  these 
cases  was  published,  thanks  to  the  deposition  of  a  police- 
oflficer,  who  corroborated  the  statement  of  the  victim,  a 
saleswoman  in  a  little  town  in  Podolia.  Accosted  by  a 
secret  agent  in  the  street  and  refusing  to  follow  him, 
she  was  arrested,  and  subjected  to  an  examination.  She 
was  virgin.  They  locked  her  up.  Next  day  she  was 
flogged,  violated  by  the  gendarmes,  and  expelled.  Her 
master,  a  very  influential  merchant,  lodged  a  complaint. 
The  affair  went  against  the  police-officer  implicated. 
Upon  that,  he  declared  that  after  his  report  he  had  called 
on  the  Grand  Duke,  who  said  to  him  that  "  if  she  were 
still  virgin,  which  was  against  the  law,  his  men  would  do 
well  to  apply  the  regulation  for  this  case,"  so  that  he  had 
only  acted  under  instructions. 

The  political  position  of  the  man,  under  these  condi- 
tions,  is    incredible.      Nicholas   could    not    have   been 


8o  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

unacquainted  with  all  his  personal  qualities.  It  is  the 
more  inexplicable  since  his  incapacity  for  governing  was 
phenomenal.  The  arrangements  that  he  had  made  at 
the  time  of  the  fetes  during  the  coronation  of  Nicholas  II. 
led  to  the  deaths  of  8,000  persons  on  the  field  of 
Khodinskoe.  Under  his  administration  the  suburbs  of 
Moscow  became  the  scenes  of  untold  crimes  ;  and 
the  use  he  made  of  the  funds  placed  at  his  commands 
calls  for  no  comment. 

None  the  less  it  is  to  him  that  Russia  owes  the  dire 
rule  of  Plehve  which  has  precipitated  the  present 
Revolutionary  movement.  It  was  he  who,  counter  to 
everyone's  advice,  including  that  of  the  omnipotent 
Pobiedonostseff,  forced  the  Tsar  to  appoint  Plehve  as 
Minister  of  the  Interior  in  succession  to  Sipiaguine,  who 
met  his  death  from  a  revolver. 

Nothing  in  this  connection  is  more  interesting  than 
the  following  conversation  between  the  Grand  Duchess 
Elizabeth,  wife  of  the  Grand  Duke  Serge,  and  a  cele- 
brated English  authoress,  who  used  to  visit  her.  The 
conversation  turned  on  the  causes  which  decided  the 
appointment  of  Plehve. 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  see  Plehve,  who  is  a  police  officer 
appointed,  but  I  suppose  he  will  be." 

"  But  why  ?  '  I  believe  an  autonomy  of  Zemstvos  is 
all  that  is  wanted." 

"  Quite  so,  all  of  us  in  the  Imperial  Family  are  con- 
vinced that  reforms,  and  even  a  Constitution,  are 
necessary.  But  how  can  we  concede  them  after  these 
attempts  ?  Plehve  had  documents  which  seemed  to 
prove  conclusively  that  if  we  made  the  least  concession 
we  should  all  share  the  fate  of  Louis  XVI.  The  Grand 
Duke  is  certain  of  it." 

"  I  don't  think  you  would," 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    8i 

"  Nor  I,  but  Plehve  holds  all  the  ropes,  and  my 
husband  has  complete  confidence  in  him.  He  will  be 
appointed,  therefore,  to  crush  the  Liberal  movement." 

Serge  was  not  satisfied  in  making  himself  the  ad- 
vocate of  scandalous  police  intrigues.  His  lack  of 
intelligence  carried  him  a  good  deal  further :  in  addition 
to  the  police,  he  sought  salvation  in  superstition.  The 
dominant  note  of  his  political  life,  his  senseless  affection 
for  Pobiedonostsefif,  made  him  the  accepted  representa- 
tive of  Orthodoxy  in  Court,  and  every  time  that  Nicholas 
in  a  spirit  of  dejection  prayed  for  Divine  guidance,  it 
was  Serge  who  assisted  him  at  first  by  gentle  methods, 
but  if  these  proved  insufficient,  by  threatening  him  with 
all  the  terrors  of  heaven  and  earth.  The  last  and  most 
terrible  of  these  scenes  between  a  mad  fool  and  a 
melancholy  one  took  place  during  the  last  visit  of  Serge 
to  Tsarskoe-Selo  on  the  6th  of  January,  1905.  On  the 
advice  of  Pobiedonostsefif,  he  ordered  his  nephew 
net  to  accord  any  reforms  whatsoever  to  the  excited 
populace.  The  Tsar  was,  however,  not  so  certain  that 
his  divine  duty  was  to  do  nothing.  Serge  then  made 
a  terrible  scene,  appealing  to  Vladimir,  Alexis,  and 
Alexander,  and  declared  that  "  if  it  were  impossible  for 
him  to  follow  the  lines  laid  down  by  God,  they  knew 
what  to  do — they  would  replace  a  heretic  Tsar  by  an 
orthodox  one.  History  records  as  many  revolutions 
in  the  palace  in  support  of  principle  as  revolutionary 
outbreaks  in  the  street."  It  was  after  this  threat  of  a 
palace  plot  that  Nicholas  appointed  General  Trepoff, 
Serge's  Aide-de-Camp  at  Moscow,  to  the  post  of 
Governor-General  of  St.  Petersburg.  His  part  is  played 
out. 


82  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Vladimir. 

Vladimir  Alexandrovitch,  the  elder  brother  of  Serge, 
has  exercised  the  dubious  functions  of  chief  of  the 
Grand  Ducal  party  to  an  even  greater  extent  than 
did  the  latter.  His  advantage  has  lain  in  the  fact  that 
he  is  the  hypothetical  father  of  a  series  of  Tsars  succeed- 
ing to  the  virtually  extinguished  primogeniture  of 
Alexander  III.  Having  a  better  right  than  the  rest  to 
participitate  in  the  guidance  of  the  Sovereign's  policy, 
he  has  assumed  a  more  insolent  tone  and  decisive 
line  of  conduct  than  Serge.  A  certain  difference  of 
character  has  also  greatly  contributed  to  this.  Serge 
was  merely  a  fanatic  ;  one  of  those  fools  who  believes, 
as  a  doctrine,  in  the  symbolical  value  of  destruction  ;  a 
madman  who  would  have  become  an  anarchist  had  he  not 
been  born  of  an  aristocrat  stock,  and  developed  into  a 
Grand  Duke  steeped  in  vice.  Gifted  with  the  mind  of  an 
inquisitor,  he  owed  much  of  his  influence  to  the  fear 
which  he  inspired.  His  twitching  lips,  his  cruel  and  shifty 
eyes,  gave  the  measure  of  his  intellect.  Vladimir,  by 
comparison,  is  almost  sympathetic  ;  his  role  is  less  heavy 
tragedy,  than  comedy  with  a  tragic  plot.  His  moustache 
smiles  at  you,  his  lips  curl  with  light  humour,  his  eye 
is  bright  when  not  dimmed  by  alcohol  ;  and  it  was  with 
this  smile  and  this  vivacity  that  he  organised  the 
massacres  of  workmen  in  St.  Petersburg  in  January,  1905. 
It  is  with  the  same  joviality  of  a  man  of  the  world,  or 
an  old  stager,  that  he  spends  millions,  and  dissipates 
colossal  sums  in  gambling  or  on  women.  If  his  unlimited 
power  was  not  subservient  to  his  passions,  Vladimir 
would  have  been  merely  an  "  old  buck  about  town." 

In  addition  to  the  intelligible  ambition  of  seeing  his 
family  safely  seated  on  the  Throne,  he  is  dominated  by 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  83 

a  rather  pitiful  combination  of  cupidity  and  alcoholism, 
the  results  of  which,  it  is  true,  are  infinitely  less  amusing 
to  Russia  than  to  the  psychologist  who  makes  an 
abstract  study  of  the  intellect  of  degenerates.  For 
beneath  his  polished  exterior  and  his  costly  vices  Vla- 
dimir conceals  a  defective  mentality.  His  wife,  Maria 
Pavlovna,  a  little  German  Princess,  converted  to  the 
extreme  of  Muscovite  reaction  in  the  hopes  of  one  day 
playing  the  part  of  Catherine  II.,  easily  leads  him  in 
politics,  and  his  intellectual  gifts  are  exclusively  devoted 
to  the  science  of  peculation,  where  they  are  manifested  in 
a  remarkable  degree. 

The  Autocracy,  defended  by  Vladimir  as  strenuously 
as  by  Serge,  even  more  strenuously  than  by  Nicholas  II., 
is  less  a  question  of  principle  than  of  money.  That 
Tsardom  still  survives  is  largely  due  to  its  faithful 
minions  of  the  mercenary  bureaucracy,  but  still  more 
to  the  desperate  exertions  of  the  Grand  Dukes.  The 
fall  of  the  autocracy  would  be  infinitely  less  serious 
for  the  former  than  for  the  latter,  since  the  bureau- 
crats would  still  keep  their  appointments.  At  most 
they  would  have  to  resign  themselves  to  be  a  little  more 
honest.  It  is  not  so  with  the  Grand  Dukes  ;  they 
would  lose  not  only  the  opportunity  of  conducting  the 
gigantic  swindles  which  make  up  half  their  revenues, 
but  would  also  be  deprived  of  their  authorised  incomes. 
A  brief  analysis  will  show  the  extent  of  such  a  disaster. 
No  Constitutional  Government,  for  instance,  would 
countenance  the  "  appointments "  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Vladimir. 

Out  of  the  ^2,cxx),ooo  odd  allowed  to  the  Grand  Dukes 
from  the  Imperial  Treasury  (some  thirty  of  them  are 
direct  recipients)  Vladimir  receives  ;!{^25o,ooo  ;  his 
"  personal  "  fortune,  lands,  forests,  mines,  &c.,  gifts  from 

G  2 


84  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

his  father,  yield  him  about  ^150,000.  The  income  from 
the  first  source  is  paid  by  the  taxes  on  a  starving  people  ; 
from  the  second,  by  the  farmers  and  workmen  whom 
he  exploits  to  such  good  purpose  that  they  have  nothing 
left  to  live  on. 

Then  come  the  following  revenues  : — General  (with 
various  indemnities),  ^^2,400  ;  Commander  of  the  Circum- 
scription of  St.  Petersburg,  ;^5,200 ;  Member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Empire,  ^^"4,400  ;  President  of  the  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts,  ^3,200 ;  Member  of  the  Committee  of 
Ministers,  ^2,400.  To  these  must  be  added  the  salaries 
which  he  derives  as  member  of  innumerable  Com- 
missions. 

Hence,  with  scrupulous  exclusion  of  peculations,  an 
income  is  arrived  at  which  equals  that  of  several  of  the 
great  Powers.  But  when  we  consider  that  his  two  sons, 
Cyril  and  Boris,  in  "  fighting  for  their  mother-country  " 
have  each  incurred  debts  of  more  than  ^^  120,000  in 
Manchuria,  whilst  Vladimir  himself,  according  to  one 
of  his  bankers,  has  a  deficit  of  ;^6oo,ooo,  it  is  obvious 
that  the  discovery  of  new  sources  of  revenue  must  be 
a  chief  preoccupation  to  him.  With  a  nerve  worthy  of 
a  Tsar  in  partibus,  he  has,  once  freed  from  Alexan- 
der III.,  who  kept  a  close  eye  on  him,  profited  by  his 
"moral"  influence  over  his  nephew,  Nicholas  II.,  to 
launch  out  into  bold  enterprises.  One  stroke  of  good 
fortune  alone  brought  him  in  nearly  ;!f2,ooo,ooo,  sorely 
needed  to  pay  his  debts  in  France  and  Germany.  He 
had,  by  right,  the  privilege  of  presiding  at  the  Central 
Committee  for  the  construction  of  the  wonderful 
Cathedral  erected  in  memory  of  Alexander  II.  on  the 
spot  where  he  was  killed  by  the  bomb.  Subscriptions 
poured  in,  and  the  work  was  pushed  on  :  but  none  of 
the   architects,  contractors,  painters,  and  masons,  ever 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  85 

succeeded  in  getting  paid.  The  publication  of  the 
fabulous  number  of  roubles  which  the  nation  had 
subscribed  set  these  people  at  their  ease.  However, 
after  waiting  twelve  years,  and  incurring  fresh  expenses, 
they  became  uneasy,  and  complained.  Judge  of  their 
horror  when  they  found  that  of  the  ^^^2,000,000  received 
there  remained  only  a  few  notes  of  a  thousand  pounds  ! 
Inquiries  elicited  the  fact  that  Vladimir  had  pocketed 
the  rest !  The  Grand  Dukes  are  legally  "  exempt  from 
jurisdiction,"  whether  criminal  or  civil.  No  power  on 
earth  could  compel  them  to  re-imburse  what  they  had 
stolen.  The  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  the  Committee 
was  made  the  scapegoat.  This  worthy  man  not  un- 
reasonably objected  and  threatened  to  disclose  the  whole 

matter.      His   lawyer,  M.    R ,    was    summoned     to 

Vladimir's  house — and  everything  was  settled.  A  proper 
treaty  was  drawn  up.  The  lawyer  and  the  "  criminal  " 
undertook  "  not  to  mention  the  name  of  any  member  ot 
the  Imperial  Family  in  the  trial."  Any  breach  of  this 
observance  would  condemn  the  criminal  to  hard  labour  in 
perpetuity,  while  the  lawyer  would  be  debarred  from 
exercising  his  profession.  If,  on  the  contrary,  everything 
went  well,  the  lawyer  would  receive  an  honorarium  ot 
10,000  roubles  ;  the  criminal  would  be  condemned  to 
ten  years'  confinement  in  Siberia  :  this  would  be  miti- 
gated to  enforced  residence  ;  he  would,  in  fact,  remain  in 
Siberia  for  five  years,  and  would  receive  10,000  roubles  a 
year ;  after  that  his  escape  would  not  be  hindered,  and 
he  would  be  allowed  to  go  to  America,  where  he  would 
receive  a  life  income  of  5,000  roubles.  Everything 
happened  as  arranged,  and  one  cannot  but  admire,  if  not 
the  honesty  of  the  tribunals,  at  least  the  resources  of  the 
Imperial  Treasury,  which  to  this  very  day  continues  its 
atonement  for  the  shame  of  Vladimir. 


86  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Such  financial  success  could  only  encourage  Vladimir 
to  profit  in  a  similar  manner  by  all  the  innumerable 
offices  that  he  occupies,  while  he  is  incessantly  soliciting 
new  ones,  always  honorary,  also  always  profitable.  On 
this  score  he  has  had  the  misfortune  to  estrange  the 
sympathies  of  certain  circles  of  the  Bureaucracy,  whom 
he  has  fleeced  of  a  portion  of  their  illicit  incomes  for  his 
own  benefit.  Many  of  these  injured  officials  have  spite- 
fully insinuated  that  Vladimir  has  accumulated  these 
"  honorary  presidencies  "  solely  for  this  purpose.  It  is  easy 
to  understand  their  discomfiture,  if  one  bears  in  mind 
that  the  very  considerable  bribes  which  were  formerly 
given  to  the  ordinary  officials  to  obtain  military  com- 
mands now  pass  to  Vladimir,  and  that  the  "  advice  "  he 
was  able  to  give  as  President  of  the  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts  to  other  bodies  in  the  choice  of  architects  and 
sculptors,  or  the  purchase  of  works  of  art  for  the  State, 
all  helped  to  swell  his  pockets.  His  military  position 
made  him  the  virtual  head  of  the  Russian  army  in  time 
of  war  (though  this  has  not  been  apparent  since  1904). 
It  was  his  right,  even  his  duty,  to  superintend  the  mobili- 
sation and  various  accessory  services.  This  he  did  to 
the  best  "  of  his  interests."  The  acceptance  of  a  *'  regal " 
present  from  a  rich  coal  merchant,  who  since  then  has 
possessed  a  quasi-monopoly,  has  become  common  talk. 
But  he  took  quite  as  much  interest  in  cannon.  The 
ingenuous  Creusot  has  never  been  able  to  sell  any  guns 
on  the  Russian  model  to  Russia.  Inquiries  (not  made 
by  the  great  French  firm)  elicited  the  statement  from 

General    L ,    who    was    charged    with    the    active 

administration,  that  "  There  is  a  house  on  the  Neva 
where  it  is  customary  to  preface  consignments  of  iron  by 
consignments  of  gold  .  .  .  ." 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  87 

The  same  state  of  affairs  applies  to  the  boot  depart- 
ment. 

A  foreign  attache — whose  nationality  cannot  be 
divulged,  the  matter  having  given  rise  to  unpleasant 
incidents — was  questioning  a  Russian  General  in 
Manchuria  in  1904  on  the  strange  phenomenon 
of  the  troops  marching  barefoot,  and  received  the 
following  reply  :  "  What !  their  boots  ?  Where  they 
are?  Why,  in  the  pocket  of  the  Grand  Duke 
Vladimir ! " 

If  the  interception  of  50,000  pairs  of  boots  can  be 
explained  by  a  keen  humanitarian  sentiment — Russian 
peasants  generally  go  about  barefoot  in  hot  weather — 
it  must  have  been  a  similar  act  of  kindly  consideration 
that  saved  the  lives  of  innumerable  Japanese.  Vladimir 
had  to  send  300  large  cases  of  ammunition  to  Manchuria 
in  March,  1904  ;  but,  unfortunately,  he  had  used 
the  money  which  should  have  been  devoted  to  the 
purchase  of  shells  for  other  purposes.  Nevertheless, 
heavy  cases  to  be  despatched  from  the  Nicholas  Station 
were  transmitted  through  the  streets  of  Petersburg.  By 
some  unaccountable  mistake  the  nature  of  the  consign- 
ment was  examined  on  its  way  to  Moscow.  It  contained 
only  paving-stones !  On  the  other  hand,  the  affair 
of  the  pharmaceutical  factory  at  St.  Petersburg  has 
involved  loss  of  life  for  thousands  of  the  wounded.  The 
factory  was  a  huge  model  establishment,  constructed 
only  a  few  years  ago  by  order  of  Vladimir.  Its  business 
was  to  prepare  all  the  necessary  medical  products  in 
times  of  peace,  which  would  keep  in  good  condition 
in  the  event  of  war  ;  and  to  hold  itself  in  readiness  to 
provide  enormous  quantities  of  the  chemicals  which 
could   not  be  preserved    till    required.     For  three  years 


88  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  factory  was  managed  by  a  clever  man  who  received 
a  very  good  salary.  At  the  outset  of  the  campaign 
the  Minister  for  War  called  to  take  stock  of  the 
supply  of  drugs,  which  had  been  manufactured  at 
great  expense,  and  discovered  that  nothing  had  been 
turned  out,  nay,  there  had  never  been  any  work  done  at 
the  factory.  The  Minister  summoned  the  manager,  who 
arrived  beaming. 

"  Come,  now,  at  last  we  shall  be  able  to  do  some 
work." 

"  What !  "  said  Kuropatkin,  astounded.  "  Nothing 
ready  ?  It  is  scandalous  !  I  will  have  you  brought  to 
justice.  You  will  be  responsible  for  thousands  of  deaths! 
Where  is  the  stolen  money  ?  " 

"  The  stolen  money  ? "  said  the  manager,  also  con- 
founded. "  Why,  since  my  appointment  I  have  never 
been  able  to  obtain  payment  for  the  expenses  incurred 
at  my  factory.  I  have  asked  for  it  a  hundred  times. 
Here  is  a  complete  copy  of  my  claims  on  the  Govern- 
ment ;  the  outstanding  amount  is  now  more  than  two 
million  roubles." 

"  The  devil  it  is !  Who  is  the  administrator  of  the 
funds  ?  "  asked  Kuropatkin. 

"  General  L ,  assistant  to  His  Imperial  High- 
ness." 

"  Oh  !  yes,  I  see  ! — The  money  shall  be  paid  you,  and 
the  work  must  proceed  forthwith." 

"  It  will  take  more  than  a  month  to  set  the  work 
going." 

"  That  will  mean  many  deaths  to  us.  Keep  me 
posted." 

This  was  one  of  Kuropatkin's  last  discoveries  in  his 
capacity  as  Minister  for  War.  He  was  already  ap- 
pointed Commander-in-Chief  to  lead   Russia  to  defeat 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    89 

when,  on  arriving  at  Kharbin,  his  first  surprise  as 
Generalissimo  was  the  discovery  that  a  train  which 
should  have  been  filled  with  clothing,  also  despatched 
under  Vladimir's  orders,  contained  only  fifteen  wagons 
full  of — straw  !  What  a  magnificent  thing  for  Vladimir's 
pockets  ! 

There  are  still  many  other  things,  among  them  a 
certain  number  of  locomotives,  which  have  been  paid  for, 
but  never  ordered  ;  enormous  "  expenses "  incurred  in 
studying  the  merits  of  different  systems  of  wireless  tele- 
graphy, one  of  which  was  to  have  been  immediately 
adopted  ;  30,000  overcoats  made  of  Perm  sheepskins  ; 
and  several  thousand  horses. 

The  results,  alas  !  have  proved  inadequate,  even  from 
Vladimir's  own  standpoint,  since  his  sons  have  unfor- 
tunately inherited  a  fatal  tendency  to  extravagance 
far  more  highly  developed  than  their  father's,  and 
even  less  judiciously  manifested,  if  such  a  thing  be 
possible.  If  the  blessings  of  the  War  and  the  needs  of 
the  Red  Cross,  of  which  his  wife  is  one  of  the  most 
influential  patronesses,  have  sufficed,  for  the  time  being, 
to  raise  the  financial  level  of  the  family  fortunes,  this 
consummation  is  certainly  no  fault  of  theirs.  On  this 
score  their  father  makes  no  complaint.  What  he  does 
feel  is  the  degeneracy  of  his  offspring  in  another 
direction,  the  mournful  fact  that  he,  an  "  aristocrat 
of  the  aristocrats,"  should  have  sons  of  low  tastes,  men 
who,  while  spending  yet  more  recklessly  than  their 
progenitor,  have  retained  no  traces  of  his  gentlemanly 
attitude. 

The  extraordinary  and  disgraceful  escapades  in  which 
one  of  these  prospective  Tsars  (Boris)  indulged  during  a 
journey  he  made  to  America  supplied  matter  for  scan- 
dalous comment  all  the  world  over. 


90  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

The  appeal  of  the  American  Press  to  President 
Roosevelt  "  not  to  receive  at  the  White  House  a 
personage  whose  presence  would  stain  the  moral  repute 
of  his  abode"  stands  as  one  of  the  most  formidable 
accusations  ever  formulated  against  this  dynasty  of 
madmen  and  profligates.  These  same  young  bloods, 
who  squander  millions  in  jewelry,  in  ^mbling  debts 
and  orgies,  have  in  the  course  of  the  present  Russo- 
Japanese  war  behaved  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  replace 
the  hatred  always  felt  towards  them  by  the  people  by 
mere  contempt.  One,  Boris,  arrived  in  Manchuria  with 
eight  ladies  recruited  from  different  countries.  He 
gambled,  caroused,  lost  enormous  sums  of  money,  and 
refused  consistently  to  go  to  the  front  and  to  carry  out 
the  orders  of  his  superior  officers.  The  scandal  was 
having  a  demoralising  effect  on  the  troops.  Kuro- 
patkin  sent  for  the  Grand  Duke  and  told  him  bluntly  : 

"  You  will  send  those  women  home  before  to-morrow  ; 
you  will  obey  orders  and  lead  your  regiment  to  the  out- 
posts, or  you  will  go  back  to  Russia." 

"  Insolent  hound  !  whom  do  you  take  me  for  ?  "  was 
the  answer  of  this  scion  of  the  Romanoffs. 

"  You  are  an  Imperial  Highness  at  home.  Here  you 
are  merely  a  Sub-Lieutenant  of  Hussars.     Now  go." 

At  this  Boris  drew  his  sword  and  rushed  at  the 
Generalissimo,  who  managed  to  slip  behind  a  table,  and 
got  off  with  a  scratch. 

The  Grand  Duke  was  put  under  arrest  like  a  common 
soldier  and  clapped  into  a  train  starting  for  Kharbin. 
The  same  day  (July,  1904)  Kuropatkin  telegraphed  to 
the  Tsar,  demanding  the  instant  recall  of  the  last  remain- 
ing representative  of  the  dynasty  at  the  seat  of  war. 

The  conduct  of  his  brother  Cyril  cost  sixty  or  more 
officers  and  men   of  the  Petropavlovsk  their  lives.     A 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  91 

first-rate  swimmer,  and  quite  uninjured,  he  was  making 
his  way,  after  the  blowing-up  of  the  iron-clad,  to  the 
shore,  which  he  could  have  reached  in  another  five 
minutes.  Round  him  were  hundreds  of  injured  sailors, 
drowning.  The  rescue  boats  dashed  forward.  He 
bellowed  without  intermission  :  "  It  is  I,  the  Grand 
Duke  !  it  is  I,  the  Grand  Duke  !  "  Numbers  of  disabled 
men  were  clinging  to  the  boats.  "  Knock  them  over  the 
head,"  he  ordered  ;  "  knock  them  over  the  head.  I  am 
the  Grand  Duke.  Beat  them  off,  I  say."  And  this  was 
done. 

The  first  boat  left  all  she  encountered  to  perish, 
hauled  the  Hope  of  the  Dynasty  aboard,  and  .  .  .  made 
for  the  shore,  abandoning  the  others,  who  gave  vent 
to  their  rage  in  howls  and  imprecations. 

Cyril  subsequently  displayed  a  degree  of  acute 
nervous  excitability  which  showed  itself  in  fits  of  panic 
terror  for  a  month  after  the  disaster.  He  was  haunted 
night  and  day  by  uncontrollable  fear.  They  put  his 
arm  in  a  sling  for  him,  for  the  benefit  of  an  admiring 
Nation,  and  he  was  packed  off  to  Nice  to  amuse  himself. 
Save  for  this  tragic  affair — for  the  St.  Petersburg 
massacres  count  at  most  as  a  "  regrettable  incident  " — 
Vladimir  has  known  only  two  serious  embarrassments  in 
his  life,  the  difficulty  of  balancing  his  ponderous  person, 
too  often  debauched  by  over-feeding,  and  the  problem  of 
balancing  his  budget,  too  often  exhausted  in  the 
gambling-hells  and  houses  of  ill-fame  of  Paris  and  the 
Riviera.  So  far,  however,  he  has  always  managed  to 
regain  his  equilibrium. 

Once,  after  spending  the  night  at  a  gaming  club  not 
far  from  the  Madeleine,  the  Grand  Duke  in  the  morning 
found  himself  50,000  francs  to  the  bad,  with  no  means 
of  settling  the  deficit.     His  first  impulse   was  to  tele- 


92  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

graph  to  St.  Petersburg  to  ask  for  money  to  meet  this 
pressing  emergency.  But  the  Petersburg  authorities 
would  have  nothing  to  say  to  the  matter. 

Highly  incensed,  the  Grand  Duke  next  recalled  an 
invitation  he  had  received  from  a  Parisian  newspaper. 
The  advertisement  they  expected  to  reap  for  themselves 
out  of  his  august  personality  was  surely  worth  some 
quid  pro  quo ;  so  the  Grand  Duke  opined,  and  very 
justly. 

Accordingly,  he  despatched  one  of  his  henchmen  to 
the  Editor,  with  orders  to  explain  in  discreet  terms  the 
pecuniary  straits  in  which  His  Highness  found  himself, 
and  to  suggest  that  the  sum  of  50,000  francs  which  he 
required  should  be  put  at  his  disposal  for  a  day  or  two. 
The  Editor  accepted  the  proposal. 

A  few  hours  later  His  Highness  might  be  seen 
alighting  with  his  suite  at  the  offices  of  the  Journal  in 
question.  He  inspected  the  premises  from  floor  to  attic, 
from  Editor's  sanctum  to  machine-room,  while  the 
photographer  on  the  staff  took  him  in  a  variety  of  poses 
to  illustrate  the  next  day's  issue. 

No  man  knows  when,  how,  or  in  what  shape  the 
50,000  francs  were  paid  back — if  they  ever  were. 

In  this  case  it  was  a  mere  matter  of  money;  but 
whenever  the  Grand  Duke's  privileges  or  authority  have 
come  in  question,  the  issue  of  his  escapades  has  proved 
much  more  tragic. 

In  defence  of  the  Imperial  prerogative,  he  has  not  only 
organised  massacres  en  masse ;  he  has  condescended 
personally  to  individual  murder.  In  December,  1904, 
he  set  out  in  hot  haste  for  Warsaw  to  inspect,  nominally, 
the  troops  mobilised  for  the  war,  really  the  petticoats 
of  certain  accommodating  ladies.  A  disaster  befell  the 
Empire.     The  Grand  Duke's  special  train  was  hung  up 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    93 

in  a  siding  for  three  hours,  since  the  line  was  blocked  by 
the  mobilisation  traffic.  He  would  be  too  late  for  a 
most  important  engagement !  Vladimir  rushes  at  the 
station-master,  who  pleads  the  exigencies  of  the  mobilisa- 
tion service.  A  torrent  of  foul-mouthed  invective  is  the 
only  answer  he  gets.  The  unhappy  man  has  the  in- 
solence to  repeat  his  explanations.  The  delirium 
tremens  of  the  Imperial  lunatic  culminates  in  a  howl  of 
rage.  Vladimir  lifts  his  hand  ;  there  is  a  flash  of  steel, 
and  the  station-master  drops  dead.  The  corpse  is  rapidly 
hustled  away,  and  the  police-report  complacently 
returns  the  cause  of  death  as  a  sudden  and  fatal  stroke 
of  apoplexy  .  .  .  due  to  chagrin  at  having  inconvenienced 
the  Tsar's  uncle ! 

Futile  to  discuss  the  question  of  responsibility  as  affect- 
ing so  high  and  mighty  a  personage.  Other  men,  for 
any  one  of  the  innumerable  acts — abnormal,  shall  we 
call  them  ? — a  few  of  the  mildest  of  which  are  here  cited, 
would  find  themselves  at  the  hulks  rather  than  in  a 
madhouse.  But  the  point  does  not  touch  Vladimir 
The  Grand  Dukes  are  by  law  above  the  Law.  And 
so  fully  do  they  appreciate  the  fact  that  this  is  the 
corner-stone  of  their  authority,  influence  and  wealth, 
that  they  do  not  hesitate  to  claim  the  odious  privilege 
in  order  to  defend  their  position.  The  irony  of  fate 
has  decreed  that  Vladimir — undoubtedly  the  ablest  of 
them  all — should  succeed,  by  dint  of  this  cynical  appeal 
to  prerogative,  in  wrecking  the  most  important  of  the 
reforms  which  his  nephew  Nicholas,  in  his  platonic  love 
of  justice,  had  dreamed  of  introducing.  The  scene  will 
loom  large  in  History,  if  only  for  its  frank  exposure  of 
the  deep-seated  canker  that  is  destroying  the  Russian 
body-politic,  and  the  open  and  undisguised  avowal  that 
this  disease  is  the  very  basis  on  which  Tsardom  rests. 


94  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

The  chief  of  the  reforms  promised  by  the  Tsar  and 
discussed  by  the  Committee  of  Ministers  was  to  consist 
in  the  guaranteeing  of  the  "  legality  "  of  measures  adopted 
by  the  different  functionaries.  This  principle  necessarily 
implies  the  right  of  the  ordinary  citizen  to  judicial 
protection  against  abuses  of  power  on  the  part  of  his 
petty  tyrants,  and,  as  a  corollary,  the  individual  responsi- 
bility of  each  official  for  his  acts.  Now,  this  primary 
measure  of  reform  was  completely  checkmated  at  the 
Committee  of  Ministers,  thanks  to  the  intervention  of 
Vladimir,  who  with  half  a  dozen  of  his  relatives  has 
a  seat — it  may  well  be  asked  why — at  the  Board. 
It  was  an  act  of  self-defence  which  the  august 
criminal  accomplished  for  fear  the  new  law  should  land 
him  in  the  galleys. 

Witte  had  opened  the  ball  with  a  discussion  of 
the  conditions  under  which  functionaries  might  be 
legally  brought  to  book  for  abuse  of  authority  and 
malversation  of  funds.  Then  the  old  Comte  de  Pahlen, 
ex-Minister  of  Justice  and  manufacturer  of  a  renowned 
kiimmel  that  has  made  his  name  for  ever  celebrated, 
a  reactionary  of  course,  but  honest  and  well-meaning 
enough,  because  amply  endowed  with  all  the  good  things 
the  world  has  to  offer,  took  up  his  parable  to  make 
a  startling  observation.     He  said  straight  out  : 

"  The  plan  is  foredoomed  to  failure.  It  will  be 
utterly  impossible  to  carry  through  prosecutions  of  the 
kind  indicated,  unless  at  the  same  time  a  clause  is 
inserted  declaring  that  no  prerogative  of  rank  or 
birth  shall  be  held  to  safeguard  the  guilty  party  against 
the  consequences  of  his  acts.  Otherwise,  without 
a  stipulation  of  the  sort,  the  accused  will  invariably 
find  some  exalted  personage  to  cover  him." 

The  effect  was  unexpected.     Quivering  with  passion, 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    95 

pale  with  anger,  Vladimir  sprang  to  his  feet,  and 
thumping  the  table  furiously  with  his  fists,  shouted  : 

"  I  will  never  allow  you  to  utter  insinuations  so 
insulting  before  members  of  the  Imperial  family,  never, 
never ! " — and  with  the  words,  the  Grand  Duke 
left  the  Council-chamber,  banging  the  doors  behind 
him. 

The  Committee  made  a  note  in  the  minutes  of 
Pahlen's  interpolation,  and  resolved  that,  such  a  pro- 
posal exceeding  the  powers  of  the  Board,  the  entire 
question  should  be  left  in  abeyance  pending  a  supreme 
decision. 

This  incident  affords  a  succinct  explanation  of  the  whole 
revolutionary  agitation.  On  the  one  hand  it  exhibits 
the  alliance  of  the  Grand  Ducal  clique  with  the  Bureau- 
cracy, on  the  other  the  formidable  solidarity  that  unites 
all  those  who  are  in  office — a  factor  so  inimical  to  the 
introduction  in  Russia  of  even  a  minimum  of  justice  and 
fair-dealing  to  the  advantage  of  the  people.  On  this 
occasion  Vladimir  openly  adopted  the  role  that  is  proper 
to  him,  that  of  recognised  head  of  the  Secret  Govern- 
ment, of  the  occult,  irresponsible  despotism  which  holds 
the  reins  of  power  above  the  Tsar's  head — the  role  of 
chief  of  the  Praetorians — and  thereby  constituted  him- 
self the  target  of  the  Revolution  more  even  than  the 
Emperor  Nicholas  himself  In  fact,  it  is  he,  and  the 
system  he  champions,  the  high  bureaucracy,  the  associa- 
tion of  anarchist  malefactors  acknowledging  no  law  and 
still  less  the  will  of  the  Sovereign,  whose  overthrow  is 
the  main  purpose  of  the  Revolution.  As  compared  with 
him,  the  other  members  of  the  clique  are  "  small  deer." 


96  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Alexis. 

At  most  two  other  Grand  Dukes,  as  well  as  the 
Empress-Dowager,  are  notable  for  the  political  activity 
they  display. 

Alexis  Alexandrovitch,  Vladimir's  brother,  is  Grand 
Admiral  of  the  Fleet.  The  professional  sailor  may  well 
ask  why ;  indeed,  such  is  his  incompetence  in  naval 
matters  as  to  make  him  the  laughing-stock  even  of  men 
like  Admirals  Avellane  or  Alexeieff,  whose  compulsory 
retirement  would  do  no  harm  to  the  Service.  The  man 
of  business,  however,  knows  the  reason  only  too  well. 
The  Navy  still  more  than  the  Army  exists  only  in  virtue 
of  the  most  costly  material  appliances.  Innumerable 
bargains  have  to  be  concluded,  and  the  High  Admiral 
is  sovereign  arbitrator  of  all  orders  to  be  placed  and 
prices  to  be  paid.  The  business  relations  of  Alexis 
with  a  certain  big  coal  contractor  are  matters  of  common 
knowledge.  Astounding  transactions  for  the  supply  of 
ships  and  guns  complete  the  picture.  Alexis  has  been 
foolish  enough  to  pay  far  too  dear  for  the  anything  but 
disinterested  favours  of  sundry  Parisian  beauties,  one  of 

whom,  Mme.  B ,  succeeded,  in   1904,  in  practising  a 

fine  bit  of  blackmail  on  him  by  going  to  Vienna  with 
some  highly  compromising  documents  relating  to  an 
important  transaction.  The  fair  lady  handed  these  back 
in  return  for  a  sum  of  100,000  roubles  on  the  nail,  and 
enjoyed  the  felicity  of  being  received  by  the  Grand 
Duke  with  an  affection  more  touching  than  ever.  For 
her  benefit,  and  hers  only,  he  laid  felonious  hands  on  the 
iJ^  1 20,000  collected  by  National  subscription  for  the 
reconstruction  of  the  damaged  Fleet,  and  bought  for  his 
inamorata  a  cross  in  rubies  worth  ;^  16,000.  He  was  in- 
judicious enough   to  parade  the  one,  wearing  the  other, 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT  97 

in  his  box  at  the  Michael  Theatre  (December,  1904).  The 
audience  sprang  to  their  feet  in  fierce  resentment, laughing 
derisively,  and  shouting  :  "  The  red  cross  !  Down  with 
the  red  cross  !  Give  back  the  money  provided  for  the 
Fleet," — in  a  word,  raised  such  a  hue  and  cry  that  the 
Grand  Duke  prudently  decamped  with  both  his  treasures. 
The  non-existence  of  the  Russian  War  Fleet  is  primarily 
his  work,  inasmuch  as  he  "  revised  "  every  decision  of 
the  Admiralty,  not  with  any  reference  to  Naval  resources 
and  requirements,  but  to  the  resources  and  requirements 
of  his  own  purse. 

Alexander  Mikiiailovitcii. 

The  husband  of  the  Emperor's  sister  Xcnia  has 
known  how  to  profit  by  the  influence  possessed  by  his 
wife  over  his  brother-in-law.  I-ong  excluded  on 
account  of  his  defective  intelligence  from  all  posts  of 
any  importance,  his  ambitions,  [jolitical  as  well  as — 
financial,  grew  only  the  more  exacting.  "  The  man 
would  stick  at  nothing,"  Plchve  said  of  him,  and  Plehve 
knew  what  he  was  talking  about.  The  enormous 
perquisites  pocketed  by  his  cousin  Alexis  haunted  his 
dreams  ;  he  too  must  have  a  finger  in  the  pie  of  "  Naval 
Administration."  So,  the  billet  at  the  Admiralty  being 
already  occupied,  he  conceived  the  creation  of  a 
corresponding  post  for  the  Mercantile  Marine — a 
business  man's,  a  "financier's"  post.  To  this  end,  he 
had  first  of  all  to  disorganise  the  Finance  Ministry 
directed  by  VVitte,  who  had  concentrated  in  his  own 
Department  the  whole  economic  administration  ;  in 
other  words,  he  must  precipitate  the  fall  of  this  power- 
ful individual— which  meant  into  the  bargain  a  [political 
upheaval  and  upset  of  far-reaching  import  in  favour  of 
the    reactionary  coterie.      It    was   a    pretty   hit — killing 

li 


98  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

two,  nay  three,  birds  with  one  stone.  For  the  Grand 
Duke,  as  owner  of  vast  forests  in  Siberia,  effected  yet 
another  coup  in  the  prosecution  of  his  intrigues. 

Foreseeing  the  War  in  Manchuria,  he  counted  upon 
doubling  the  enormous  profits  accruing  to  him  from  the 
furnishing  of  wood  required  by  the  Trans-Siberian  rail- 
way, both  for  repairs  of  the  permanent  way  and  as  fuel 
for  its  locomotives.  In  July,  1903,  he  submitted  to 
Witte  a  fresh  contract  for  these  supplies,  in  which 
all  the  prices  were  doubled  ;  Witte  refused  point 
blank.  A  scene  followed  that  baffles  description. 
Alexander  rushed  to  the  Tsar,  accused  Witte  of 
"disrespectful  and  revolutionary  behaviour,"  called  in 
his  wife  to  the  rescue,  and  made  such  a  commotion 
that  Witte  was  turned  out  three  days  later. 

His  successor  signed  the  disputed  contract.  The 
Tsar  had  already  embarked  upon  the  Yongampho 
affair  by  the  Grand  Duke's  advice,  had  nominated 
Bezobrazoff,  a  sharper  of  the  first  water.  Minister  of 
State  without  portfolio,  and  his  friend  Alexeiefif 
Viceroy  of  the  Far  East  ;  so  he  could  hardly  refuse 
him  a  personal  favour.  He  created  for  him  that 
department  of  shady  transactions  officially  known  as 
the  Board  of  Mercantile  Marine,  whence  the  Grand- 
Duke  exercised  henceforth  an  extraordinary  influence 
over  different  provinces  of  administration — a  form  of 
activity  never  contemplated  as  part  of  his  duties, 
but  extremely  remunerative.  An  instance,  approxima- 
ting very  nearly  to  treason,  is  offered  by  the  purchase 
of  Argentine  vessels  during  the  course  of  the  War. 

Nicholas  Nicholaievitch. 

As    Alexis    for   the    Navy,    so   his    cousin    Nicholas 
for    military    matters   is    looked    upon    by    the    family 


THE  DYNASTY  AND  THE  COURT    99 

as  a  genius,  and  wields  some  degree  of  influence  in 
consequence.  Unfortunately,  fine  horseman  and  finished 
dancer  as  he  is,  Nicholas  has  belied  all  the  hopes 
entertained  of  his  turning  out  a  great  man.  The 
idea  had  been  to  set  him  at  the  head  of  the  Armies 
of  Manchuria.  But,  to  say  nothing  of  a  well-founded 
dread  of  bringing  the  man's  notorious  inefficiency  into 
prominence  in  a  post  where  the  exercises  of  the 
riding-school  are  not  the  principal  duties,  the  prob- 
able financial  consequences  filled  all  concerned  with 
consternation,  and  the  project  was  abandoned.  For, 
alas  !  Nicholas  is  the  son  of  his  father ;  he  was  indeed 
his  aide-de-camp  in  the  Turkish  War,  when  his  august 
parent  was  Commander-in-Chief,  and  in  co-partnership 
with  the  Jews,  Gregori,  Cohn,  and  Company,  contractors 
for  the  commissariat,  signed  hundreds  of  vouchers  for 
supplies  never  delivered,  took  his  share  of  the  spoil,  left 
his  Army  without  clothes  or  food,  and  all  but  lost  the 
campaign  to  benefit  his  own  pocket,  finally  retiring  into 
private  life  with  a  fortune  of  over  ;^  1,000,000.  Nay, 
more,  he — or  if  not  he,  his  son — had  the  superb  effrontery 
to  recount  his  exploits  in  1880  in  the  pages  of  the 
Nouvelle  Revue.  This  proceeding  earned  them  a  trial  at 
law,  police  surveillance,  a  mere  annual  pittance,  banish- 
ment to  Nice,  and  most  important  of  all — confiscation 
of  the  millions  "  illegally  collected  "  for  the  benefit  of 
— the  Imperial  Exchequer! 

The  Pillars  of  Tsardom. 

The  mosaic  of  facts  like  these,  which  might  be  multi- 
plied a  hundredfold,  displays  better  than  any  formal 
analysis  the  character  and  extent  of  the  Grand  Ducal 
power.  Why  seek  further  afield  to  account  for  the 
universal  odium  incurred  by  these   personages  ?     Plun- 

H    2 


loo  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

derers  of  the  finances  both  of  State  and  of  individuals,  ever- 
lastingly embarrassed,  everlastingly  petitioning  the  over- 
patient  Tsar  to  pay  their  debts,  fingering  perquisites, 
whether  directly  or  through  the  intermediary  of  mis- 
tresses and  corrupt  office-holders,  they  use  their  influence 
solely  with  a  view  to  the  satisfaction  of  their  morbid 
instincts,  and  rouse  the  nation  to  an  extremity  of  exas- 
peration by  the  practice,  open  and  insolent  because 
immune  from  punishment,  of  all  the  abuses  that  flourish 
among  bureaucrats — though  these  retain  at  any  rate  some 
vestiges  of  shame,  and  make  some  effort  to  cloak  their 
misdeeds.  The  Grand  Ducal  clique  is  the  true  cancer  of 
Russia,  less  by  any  overt  acts  than  by  the  atmosphere  of 
moral  rottenness  it  disseminates  through  all  official 
circles. 

It  is  not,  as  in  all  other  Monarchical  countries,  the 
Aristocracy  (a  class  of  men  beati  possidentes  and  there- 
fore independent-minded,  vowed  to  reaction  by  the  very 
traditions  of  their  rank)  which  supports  and  forms  the 
bodyguard  of  this  august  brotherhood.  The  Aristocracy 
has  no  need  to  employ  such  methods,  which  would  tend 
much  more  to  its  degradation  than  its  aggrandisement. 
Self-seeking  and  unprincipled  parvenus  only  are  likely 
to  profit  by  making  themselves  the  lackeys  of  such  a 
system.     In  Russia  these  are  the  Bureaucrats. 

The  Grand  Ducal  clique  and  the  Bureaucratic  caste 
are  the  pillars  of  that  Tsardom  the  pathological  horrors 
of  which  have  here  been  indicated.  The  Bureaucracy, 
the  advance  of  which  goes  pari  passu  with  the  decadence 
of  the  Aristocracy,  has,  on  the  contrary,  found  an  im- 
placable adversary  in  the  latter.  The  Russian  Aristo- 
cracy is  the  direct  opponent  of  this  regime. 

Tsar  and  Court  are  nothing  but  the  belly  of  the 
bureaucratic  devil-fish. 


CHAPTER  II 

ADVENT   OF   THE   BUREAUCRACY 

One  of  the  most  notable  peculiarities  of  the  anti- 
aristocratic  movement  in  Russia  is  undoubtedly  the  fact 
that  it  is  directed  by  the  Nobility.  It  seems  likely  that 
this  latter  class  is  destined  to  play  the  same  part  in  the 
Russian  Revolution  as  the  tiers  ctat  did  in  France.  True 
we  have  been  assured  over  and  over  again  that  Revolution 
is  impossible  in  Russia,  where  no  regularly  constituted 
bourgeoisie  exists.  But  what  was  the  role  of  the  French 
bourgeoisie  in  the  Great  Revolution  ?  That  of  a  class 
relatively  wealthy  and  well  educated,  in  opposition  to  a 
system  of  arbitrary  government  which  debarred  it  from 
the  free  exercise  of  its  economic  and  intellectual  forces. 

In  Russia  the  corresponding  role  is  filled  by  a  section 
of  the  rich  commercial  class,  and  still  more  by  the 
Nobility. 

This  state  of  things  results  from  the  formation  of  a 
bureaucratic  caste,  itself  the  consequence  of  the  demo- 
cratic reforms  of  Alexander  II.  Up  to  the  middle  of 
the  last  century  the  direction  of  political  affairs  was  con- 
centrated in  the  hands  of  the  Nobility,  under  the  close 
personal  superintendence  of  the  Tsar.  It  was  the  hey- 
day of  power  of  the  aristocratic  caste.  Middle-class 
officials  there  were,  but  they  were  trusted  with  nothing 
better  than  mere  routine  work,  and  could  never  aspire 
to  any  high  position.     The  appalling  revelations  of  the 


I02  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Crimean  War,  exposing  the  incapacity  of  this  regime, 
forced  Alexander  II,  to  undertake  "  the  great  reforms  of 
the  sixties."  The  aboHtion  of  serfdom,  simultaneously 
with  the  establishment  of  the  zenistvos,  and  of  reforms  in 
connection  with  the  administration  of  justice,  the  press, 
and  public  education,  threw  open  official  employment  to 
crowds  of  young  men  of  all  classes  on  the  sole  condition 
of  their  showing  capacity.  Once  the  great  official  Colleges 
were  made  free  to  others  besides  the  Nobles,  aristocratic 
supremacy  verged  to  its  close,  and  the  bureaucratic  caste 
was  virtually  established.  Capacity  was  now  the  one 
thing  needful  to  pave  a  way  from  the  lowliest  to  the 
most  exalted  office  in  the  Empire.  Within  a  few  years 
the  middle-class  had  appropriated  all  the  official  ap- 
pointments. Then  a  psychological  characteristic  com- 
mon to  all  parvenus  came  into  play  ;  their  hatred  of  the 
Nobility,  their  masters  of  yesterday,  remained  unabated 
while  the  intoxication  of  power  led  them  to  subject  the 
ordinary  citizen,  who  was  entrusted  to  their  tender  mer- 
cies as  rulers,  to  intolerable  oppressions.  They  proved 
traitors  to  all  sections  of  the  Nation  ;  to  the  Government 
which  had  appointed  them  with  a  view  to  having  loyal, 
scrupulous  and  capable  officers  ;  to  the  Nobility  which 
hoped  by  this  infusion  of  fresh  blood  to  build  up  a  new 
"  nobility  of  merit " ;  to  the  middle-classes,  which  looked 
to  be  faithfully  represented  in  the  Administration  by 
their  fellow-citizens  ;  and  finally  to  the  masses,  which, 
crushed  beneath  the  burden  of  serfdom,  craved,  if  not 
an  increase  of  well-being,  at  any  rate  some  approach  to 
common  justice.  A  new  caste  came  into  being  ;  scorn- 
ful alike  of  Government  and  People,  disposing  of  the 
enormous  unchecked  powers  attaching  to  Administra- 
tion in  a  country  where  thought  is  a  crime  and  re- 
sponsibility a  personal  appanage  of  the  Sovereign,  the 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY   103 

Bureaucracy  was  destined  from  the  very  first,  by  the 
laws  of  its  natural  development,  to  trample  on  its 
especial  foe,  the  Nobility,  and  bound  so  to  organise  its 
methods  as  to  hinder  its  victims  from  appealing  directly 
to  the  Tsar,  or  even  adopting  measures  of  legitimate  self- 
defence. 

Decline  of  the  Aristocracy. 

These  changes  were  the  more  easily  effected  inasmuch 
as  the  middle-class,  larger  numerically  than  the  nobility, 
could  push  forward  a  greater  proportionate  number  of 
individuals  into  high  office.  It  is  surely  noteworthy  that, 
for  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
there  have  been  out  of  a  total  of  some  dozens  of 
Russian  Ministers  of  State  only  seven  Nobles.  With 
the  exception  of  Sviatopolk-Mirski,  Tolstoi,  Goremykin, 
Sipiaguine  and  Lobanoff-Rostovski,  Lamsdorff  and 
Buliguine,  all  the  chiefs  of  Russian  policy  and  ad- 
ministration have  come  from  families  of  comparatively 
humble  rank.  Witte,  an  obscure  railway  employe^  — 
his  predecessor  Vyschnegradski,  son  of  a  lowly  village 
pope,  —  Bogoliepoff,  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
killed  in  1900,  son  of  a  non-commissioned  officer, — 
Zenguer,  one  of  his  successors,  son  of  a  minor  official, — 
Plehve  himself,  and  others,  all  are  parvenus  ;  and  like 
parvenus,  they  have  always  taken  a  malicious  plea- 
sure in  keeping  out  in  the  cold  the  man  of  high 
family  and  exalted  rank.  Personal  aptitude,  individual 
capacity,  is  all  they  look  out  for,  and  in  this  way  they 
have  recruited  a  powerful  army  of  functionaries  whose 
sole  glory  and  sole  moral  princi[)lc  is  what  may  be 
termed  "■  arrivisme", — an  odious  combination  of  selfish- 
ness, ambition,  cynicism,  greed  and  effrontery.  What 
they    want    is    money    and    arbitrary    powers.     At    the 


I04  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

opening    of    their     career    they    possess    neither    the 
one  nor  the  other.     Their  only  asset  is   their   official 
position.      This  they  exploit  by  every  means   in    their 
power,  honest  or  dishonest,  so  as  to  make  money,  and 
indemnify  themselves  for  all  they  have  endured  in  the 
past  by  bullying  their  inferiors  and  oppressing  the  mass 
of  the  people.      Face  to  face  with  this  formidable  and 
ever  encroaching  power,  the  Nobility  found  themselves 
in  a  pitiable  state  of  weakness.     Not  only  had  they  lost 
the  influence  they  once   exercised  upon  public  affairs, 
but  they  were  actually  reduced  to  precisely  the  same 
condition  of  subservience  as  other  subjects  of  the  Tsar. 
This  hit  them  terribly  hard,  accustomed  as    they  had 
always  been  to  be  treated  by  the  Tsar's  Government  on 
an  entirely  different  footing  from  the  serfs  and  peasants. 
Of  the  old  prerogatives  of  nobility  nothing  was   left  ; 
once  they  had  ruled  autocratically  over  twenty  millions 
of  serfs,  now  they  were  themselves  become  the  slaves  of 
irresponsible  bureaucrats.      The  sole  trace  of  privilege 
remaining  was  the  right  to  bear  arms  and  to  tack  on 
their   territorial    title   to   their   surname ;    in    all   other 
respects  their  status  was  identical  with  that  of  common 
workmen  and  peasants.     The  present-day  situation  of 
the  Nobles  in  the  Russian  Empire  corresponds  exactly 
with  that  occupied  by  the  tiers  etat  at  the  dawn   of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  their  obvious  role  is  to  take  the 
lead  in  the  revolutionary  movement.     Their   wealth  is 
conspicuously   diminished ;    two-fifths  of  their    estates 
have  been  acquired  by  the  bourgeoisie,  in  other  words  by 
traders  and  officials  who  have  made  their  fortunes. 

At  the  same  time,  in  virtue  of  their  personal  relations 
with  the  Tsar  and  with  foreign  society,  as  well  as  of  their 
relatively  high  standard  of  education,  they  have  come  to 
form  the  elite,  as  it  were,  of  the  victims  of  Bureaucracy. 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY    105 

Their  influence  over  the  peasants  is  still  very  great,  and 
knowing  full  well  as  they  do  the  impossibility  of  a  return 
to  the  old  aristocratic  regime,  they  are  bound,  if  they 
would  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the  bureaucrats  and  regain 
their  social  importance,  to  use  their  influence  and  talent 
in  favour  of  the  general  revolutionary  movement,  in 
alliance  with  and  on  the  same  lines  as  the  intellectuals, 
the  bourgeois,  the  artisans,  and  the  peasants. 

Bureaucratic  Principles. 

This  rise  of  the  Bureaucratic  Caste  and  its  direct  con- 
sequence, the  decline  of  the  Aristocracy,  are  facts  suffi- 
cient of  themselves  to  account  for  the  exasperation 
which  the  new  regime  was  bound  in  course  of  time  to 
stir  up  among  the  divers  elements  constituting  what 
is  known  as  the  Russian  Nation,  that  is  to  say,  the  con- 
geries of  peoples  living  together  under  the  ineffectual 
sceptre  of  the  Tsar.  The  governing  principles  of  Russian 
Bureaucracy  have  never  yet  been  clearly  and  definitely 
formulated  ;  in  fact,  it  was  impossible  they  should  be, 
seeing  they  are  the  logical  result  and  not  in  any  sense 
the  programme  of  its  political  activity.  They  consist, 
as  the  painful  experience  of  half  a  century  proves,  in  the 
strictest  possible  application  of  M.  Bielofif's  aphorism  : 
"Work  is  a  forbidden  luxury  to  all  subjects  of  the  Tsar." 

The  power  of  irresponsible  functionaries  is  incomj)atible 
with  all  manifestation  of  energy  springing  from  other 
initiative  than  that  of  the  Bureaucracy  itself  Energy, 
whether  in  its  individual  or  collective  aspect,  may  take 
the  shape  of  national  activity,  championship  of  human 
dignity,  economic  effort  and  intellectual  ambition.  A 
Bureaucracy,  therefore,  in  order  to  uphold  its  own  omni- 
potence, is  forced  to  take  all  measures  it  deems  advisable 
in  order  to  paralyse  every  manifestation  of  independent 


io6  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

action  of  this  sort.  It  can  but  tend  to  resume  in  its  own 
life  the  national  life  of  the  different  races  and  peoples 
subject  to  the  Tsar,  and  so  invents  a  standard  of  Pan- 
Slavism,  or  rather  of  Pan-Russianism.  It  cannot  under- 
stand or  tolerate  the  resistance  of  isolated  individuals 
from  moral  motives  ;  so  it  leans  on  executive  rather 
than  justice.  It  aspires  to  control  the  industrial  life, 
with  a  view  to  amassing  wealth  and  checking  the  rise  of 
any  rival  power ;  so,  as  a  natural  consequence,  it  culti- 
vates pauperism.  It  dreads  the  intellectual  elevation  of 
the  masses,  because  modern  science  ipso  facto  condemns 
it ;  so  it  organises  ignorance.  The  four  weapons  of  the 
Russian  Bureaucracy,  the  four  crimes  whereby  it  has  at 
last  provoked  a  national  reaction,  and  which  at  the 
present  moment  have  dragged  the  country  to  the  brink 
of  an  appalling  cataclysm,  are  in  reality  nationalism, 
illegality,  general  impoverishment,  and  ignorance. 

The  Oligarchy. 

It  is  generally  supposed  in  Europe  that  the  Russian 
Bureaucratic  Caste  is  incapable  of  following  out  any 
consistent  plan  of  action  systematically,  whether  in  the 
interests  of  its  own  material  advantage  or  for  political 
ends.  It  is  regarded  as  being  split  up  into  a  large 
number  of  isolated  individuals,  mutually  independent 
and  antagonistic,  each  acting  alone  against  all  the  rest. 
A  Bureaucracy,  it  is  argued,  is  the  most  perfect  instance 
of  absolute  anarchy — a  struggle  of  all  against  all.  But 
if  this  were  so,  a  bureaucratic  regime,  overriding  the 
Tsar's  authority,  would  be  an  impossibility,  and  the 
country  would  not  have  been  driven  into  revolution  by 
the  well-organised  tyranny  that  is  crushing  it. 

Such  a  view  would  seem  to  be  utterly  erroneous. 
The  bureaucratic  despot  who  carried  the  regime  to  its 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  107 

culminating  point,  Plehve  himself,  was  no  isolated 
individual.  The  two  or  three  hundred  leaders  of  the 
great  army  of  functionaries  are  anything  but  a  chaotic 
mass  of  rivals  engaged  in  internecine  strife.  On  the 
contrary,  they  are  organised  into  regular  bands  of  con- 
spirators, or  if  not  quite  that,  into  compact  groups  of 
arrivistes,  actuated  by  identical  interests.  They  form 
an  Oligarchy,  in  fact  ;  and  it  is  a  factor  of  no  small 
significance  for  the  future  that  the  Imperial  policy  for 
more  than  a  score  of  years  up  to  Plehve's  death  has 
been  the  work  of  an  Oligarchy  deliberately  planning  and 
consciously  carrying  out  a  preconceived  purpose.  It  is 
imperative  to  analyse  its  component  parts,  if  only  to 
make  manifest  in  what  manner,  by  what  means,  and  as 
against  what  opponents  the  educated  classes  can  succeed, 
as  things  are  now,  in  bringing  about  fundamental  reforms 
likely  to  result  in  a  complete  transformation  of  the 
Empire. 

The  Moscow  Group. 

The  Oligarchy  in  question  is  made  up  01  three 
groups — police  functionaries,  officers  in  high  military 
and  naval  command,  the  more  ambitious  among  the 
Grand  Dukes.  The  second  of  these  groups  was  the 
earliest  organised,  the  one  to  take  the  initiative  in  the 
vast  enterprise  of  laying  violent  hands  on  the  Russian 
Empire.  Its  beginnings  are  remote,  but  as  clear  as 
daylight.  It  originated  at  the  "Second  Military  Cadet 
School  "  at  Moscow. 

At  this  noble  and  distinguished  Institution  there 
existed  in  the  years  from  1862  to  1868  a  little  band  of 
"  inseparables,"  an  association  of  class-mates  forming  an 
exclusive  coterie,  the  members  of  which  were  already 
actuated  by  the  most  far-reaching  ambitions.     The  mere 


io8  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

enumeration  of  their  names  will  give  those  familiar 
with  the  Bureaucracy  of  to-day  some  imperfect  idea  of 
the  vast  purview  of  their  enterprise.  The  group  included 
— without  counting  the  black  sheep  who  went  wrong,  the 
great  humanitarian  anarchist,  Cherkessoff — the  following 
friends  and  comrades :  Bezobrazoff,  Vanlialarski,  Basil 
and  Valerian  Sakharoff,  Volkoff,  Petrovski,  and 
Pusanoff,  These  young  officers,  if  we  may  trust  the 
reports  of  their  instructors  and  superiors,  were  none  of 
them  specially  remarkable,  whether  for  natural  talent, 
success  in  their  studies,  or  ability  as  officers  in  the  field. 
But  being  possessed  of  some  influence,  together  with  an 
aptitude  for  intrigue,  they  mutually  pushed  each  other's 
fortunes.  Here  are  the  positions  they  have  severally 
attained,  after  uniting  the  two  other  groups  (Police  and 
Court)  in  their  common  activity  :  Bezobrazoff,  Minister 
without  portfolio.  Director  of  the  affairs  of  the  Far  East 
before  the  War ;  Vanlialarski,  General  of  Division  ; 
Basil  Sakharoff,  Minister  of  War  ;  Valerian  Sakharoff, 
Chief  of  Staff  of  the  Armies  in  Manchuria  ;  Volkoff, 
General  in  Command  at  Kharbin  ;  Petrovski,  ex-editor 
of  the  Moskovskiya  Vidomosti,  the  principal  organ  of  the 
reaction  ;  Pusanoff,  General  of  Gendarmerie  in  command 
of  the  Police. 

Sundry  other  illustrious  members  of  the  Oligarchy, 
men  of  a  different  origin  and  environment,  are  wanting 
in  this  list — in  particular  Plehve  ;  Muravieff,  ex-Minister 
of  Justice  ;  Alexeieff,  ex-Vice-Regent  of  the  Far  East  ; 
Kleigels  and  Wahl,  former  Prefects  of  St.  Petersburg  ;  as 
well  as  certain  Grand  Dukes,  notably  Vladimir,  Serge, 
Alexis,  and  Alexander,  the  Empress-Mother,  and 
Pobiedonostseff,  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod.  Their 
inter-relations,  however,  become  plain  if  we  follow  up 
their  activity  in  detail. 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY    109 


The  Masters  of  Alexander  III. 

The  period  at  which  this  activity  began  definitely  to 
manifest  itself  curiously  coincides  with  the  accession  of 
Alexander  III,,  or,  which  comes  to  the  same  thing,  with 
the  sinister  reaction  inaugurated  by  that  monarch  against 
the  last  express  wish  of  his  father — victim  to  the  bomb 
of  the  Yekaterininski  Kanal.  At  that  epoch  certain  high 
personages  in  the  counsels  of  the  Tsar,  men  of  maturer 
years  than  the  members  of  the  "  Moscow  group,"  had  been 
constrained  by  the  course  of  events  to  act  in  concert,  in 
order  to  secure  the  success  of  a  plan,  bearing  a  strong 
family  likeness  to  a  plot,  so  as  not  to  lose  the  advantages 
attaching  to  their  position.  It  was  a  purely  heterogene- 
ous agglomeration,  in  which  unity  had  never  reigned,  but 
which,  on  the  contrary,  was  perpetually  being  torn  to 
pieces  by  trivial  rivalries.  Its  most  prominent  constitu- 
ents, till  then  isolated  from  one  another,  were  :  Pobie- 
donostseff,  Plehve,  Muravicfif,  the  Grand  Dukes  Vladimir 
and  Serge,  and  the  new  Empress.  The  mysterious  and 
suspicious  circumstances  attending  the  assassination  of 
Alexander  II.  had  brought  them  more  or  less  together, 
even  before  the  Moscow  group  provided  them  with  a 
regular  secret  organisation.  A  dead  man  was  its  pivot ; 
the  murdered  Alexander  II.,  assassinated  by  the  group 
to  escape  Constitutional  reform. 

The  Tsar  had  signed  the  Constitution  drawn  up  by 
the  Dictator  Loris  Mclikoff.  It  could  not  be  promul- 
gated the  same  day,  as  this  was  a  Sunday.  Its  formal 
publication  was  fixed  for  the  morrow.  The  bomb  was 
thrown  at  the  supreme  moment.  The  Tsar  had  received 
the  most  peremptory  warnings.  Plehve,  head  of  the 
political  police,  was  cognisant  of  the  entire  plot,  one  of 


no  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  conspirators  having  turned  traitor.  The  ringleader, 
Cheliabofif,  was  already  arrested.  Save  for  the  exact  day 
and  hour,  the  whole  thing  was  known  beforehand  with 
the  utmost  precision.  Sophie  PerovskaTa  replaced 
Cheliabofif.  This  Plehve  had  not  discovered,  but  he  was 
aware  of  the  means  they  proposed  to  employ.  On  the 
fatal  Sunday  two  alternative  routes  were  open  to  the  Tsar ; 
the  conspirators  were  ready  for  both.  One  of  the  streets 
was  mined  ;  along  the  other  waited,  at  well  chosen 
intervals,  thirty  bomb-throwers.  In  one  or  the  other,  the 
Tsar  was  foredoomed  to  meet  his  death.  In  the  one 
and  the  other,  Plehve  had  failed  to  discover  anything 
suspicious.  He  gave  a  holiday  to  his  wonderful  secret 
police  under  pretext  that  Cheliaboff  was  arrested  ; 
knowing  better  than  anyone  that  the  disappearance  of  a 
particular  ringleader  is  of  no  importance  among  the 
Nihilists,  he  had  been  at  no  pains  to  take  further 
measures  of  precaution.  The  inevitable  catastrophe 
ensued. 

The  passive  guilt  of  Plehve  and  his  partisans  assumed 
an  active  complexion  from  the  moment  they  coerced 
Alexander  III.  into  committing  what  really  amounted 
to  a  State  crime  by  preventing  him,  as  above,  from 
promulgating  the  Constitution  which  was  already  legally 
in  force.  The  direct  instigators  of  this  crime  were 
Pobiedonostseff  and  Plehve,  the  two  ulterior  chiefs  of  the 
bureaucratic  oligarchy.  Their  act  is  an  indication  of 
their  character. 

Pobiedonostseff. 

Constantine  Petrovitch  Pobiedonostseff, now  an  old  man 
of  seventy-eight,  but  still  a  fighter,  is  gifted  with  a  singular 
power  of  dialectic.     His  early  works  on   the    Russian 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY    in 

Civil  Code  had  attracted  the  attention  of  Alexander  II. 
A  slave  to  the  letter  of  the  law,  he  laboriously  built  up 
on  the  old  texts  of  the  History  of  Tsardom  the 
monstrous  edifice  of  a  Theory  of  State,  the  pillars 
whereof  were  Orthodoxy,  Absolutism  and  Nationalism. 
Was  it  not  enough  to  dazzle  a  Tsar  who  had  not  an 
idea  of  his  own  as  to  what  theory  he  should  embrace  ? 
In  the  hope  of  sparing  his  sons  the  like  crises  of 
conscience,  he  gave  Pobiedonostseff  the  direction  of  their 
education  :  and  this  hide-bound,  mediaeval,  savagely 
uncompromising  pedant,  the  systematic  apologist  of 
oppression,  armed  with  the  irresistible  dialectic  of  Hegel, 
and  all  the  weapons  of  modern  Science  turned  against 
herself,  became  the  guiding  spirit  of  a  quarter  of  a 
century  of  Tsarism. 

Professor  to  begin  with,  then  Senator,  eventually 
Procurator  of  the  Ploly  Synod,  he  had  attained  to 
spiritual  omnipotence  at  the  very  time  when  the  brains 
he  had  modelled,  fettered,  compressed  in  the  mould  of 
his  own  ideas,  were  to  be  called  upon  to  think  for  the 
Empire.  Never  before,  at  any  epoch  of  History,  had 
so  overwhelming  a  degree  of  mental  supremacy  been 
attained  by  a  simple  functionary.  Sundry  prerogatives, 
formidable  in  theory,  which  attached  to  the  Procurator 
of  the  Synod,  but  which  it  had  never  been  practicable 
to  exercise  under  Tsars  who  knew  their  own  powers, 
now  became  an  appalling  reality.  The  ve^o  he  exercised 
theoretically  in  the  Tsar's  name  against  any  decision 
of  the  Convocation  of  Priests  which  governs  Orthodox 
opinion,  became  in  his  hands  an  engine  of  absolute 
domination.  He,  and  he  alone,  personally  and 
individually,  remained  the  connecting  link  between 
the  political  and  religious  powers  of  the  Tsar,  in  a 
land   where   autocracy  is  a   dogma   of  the   Faith,  and 


112  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

where  the  people,  under  the  empire  of  odious  world- 
old  superstitions,  are  held  in  obedience  only  by  the 
authority  of  the  Church. 

Subjugating  on  the  one  hand  the  countless  masses 
of  the  Orthodox  by  his  Synodal  power,  on  the  other 
dominating  his  bewildered  pupils,  Tsars  and  Grand 
Dukes,  by  the  ascendancy  of  an  undoubtedly  superior 
intelligence,  the  empire  of  which,  originally  imposed 
upon  timid  adolescents,  preponderated  over  their  minds 
as  adults,  this  Grand  Inquisitor,  this  Occult  Pontiff,  has 
wielded  an  irresistible  influence  over  the  destiny  of 
Russia,  even  in  periods  when  his  personal  prestige 
seemed  to  be  temporarily  eclipsed.  His  pupils 
followed  unsuspectingly  where  he  led  ;  and  the  iron 
claws  of  the  Church,  instruments  of  his  fashioning, 
automatically  retained  their  grip  on  the  moral  and 
intellectual  life  of  the  Nation,  after  the  master,  the 
Grand  Lama  of  Russia,  the  idol  of  the  Tsars  and 
their  heedless  Court,  had  withdrawn  into  the  ivory 
tower  of  philosophical  speculation.  Alexander,  Serge, 
Vladimir,  Nicholas  II.  and  the  Empress  Marie  were  or 
are  his  slaves.  Through  them  Pobiedonostseff  reigned 
— through  them  the  one  thing  really  important  in  the 
man,  his  ideal  of  the  State,  became  a  political  reality. 

PLEHVE. 

What  this  modern  Torquemada — the  name  given  him 
by  his  own  rebellious  priests — has  been  by  his  intellect- 
ual weight,  Plehve  has  been  by  dint  of  direct  activity, 
a  factor  infinitely  more  influential  than  theory  in  the 
life  of  States.  He  is  the  pure  political  incarnation  of 
Pobiedonostseff's  fallacious  Theocracy.  His  life  as 
nearly  as  possible  covers  the  most  unhappy  period  of 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY    ii^ 

Russian  history,  and  if  the  apogee  of  his  regime  could 
only  be  attained  by  means  of  the  mysterious  community 
of  aims  that  bound  him  to  the  Moscow  group,  his 
sanguinary  star  was  already  shining  with  a  malign  bril- 
liancy during  the  years  that  intervened  between  the 
assassination  of  Alexander  II.  and  the  accession  to 
power  of  this  oligarchical  coalition. 

Born  in  1846,  in  Lithuania,  of  parents  ot  German 
origin,  he  was  adopted  as  an  orphan  by  a  well-to-do 
kinsman,  who  treated  him  in  every  way  as  a  son.  The 
tiger's  claws  were  already  peeping  out.  In  Lithuania 
he  lived  in  the  house  of  his  uncle,  a  Polish  Catholic, 
while  he  himself  was  a  Protestant,  like  all  the  Germans 
of  the  Baltic  provinces.  He  changed  his  faith  without 
the  smallest  hesitation.  The  same  thing  happens  with 
perfectly  conscientious  persons,  whose  minds  by  degrees 
become  more  and  more  emancipated,  till  they  reach  free- 
thought.  In  his  case,  the  evolution  of  his  religious 
avatars  was  in  the  contrary  direction,  but  always 
parallel  with  his  chances  of  material  advancement. 

He  became  a  convert  to  Catholicism  at  sixteen,  since 
this  was  the  condition  on  which  his  uncle  made  him  his 
sole  heir.  Impatient  to  come  into  possession  of  his 
fortune,  he  did  a  grand  stroke  of  business  by  taking 
advantage  of  the  ferocity  of  the  infamous  Muravieff  the 
Hangman,  who  at  that  time  was  stifling  the  Polish  insur- 
rection— under  a  pile  of  corpses.  Plehve  denounced 
his  uncle  as  being  in  affiliation  with  the  insurgents,  and 
Muravieff  had  him  hanged  as  a  Revolutionary.  Plehve 
inherited  his  property,  received  a  bursary  for  the  Faculty 
of  Law  at  Moscow  in  recognition  of  his  parricide,  passed 
his  examinations  brilliantly — the  more  so  since  Mura- 
vieff continued  to  keep  an  eye  on  him — and  at  twenty- 
two  was  placed  in   the   Ministry  of  Finance.     Plehve, 

I 


114  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

fortune-hunter  and  informer,  traitor  and  parricide,  became 
a  champion  of  Justice  ! 

In  another  two  years  he  was  Public  Prosecutor  at 
Moscow,  assisted  by  a  young  nephew  of  Muravieff.  His 
earliest  triumph  was  the  sentencing  of  the  young  Prince 
Chcrkessofif,  the  black  sheep  of  the  Moscow  group,  to 
deportation  for  publishing  official  statistics  proving  the 
awful  state  of  destitution  into  which  the  peasants  had 
fallen,  thanks  to  the  unjust  execution  of  the  ukase 
ordering  the  abolition  of  serfdom.  First  striking  proof 
of  talent  in  the  reactionary  cause,  and  first  association 
with  the  Moscow  group  and  Muravieff!  His  police 
adroitness  earned  him  the  administratorship  of  the 
St.  Petersburg  Criminal  Courts  just  when  Nihilism  was 
making  determined  attacks  on  the  Tsar,  who  had  re- 
pented of  his  projected  reforms.  His  reputation  grew 
and  increased,  and  he  was  appointed  Head  of  the 
Political  Police.  The  astuteness  with  which,  under 
circumstances  already  detailed,  he  managed  to  induce 
Alexander  III.  to  take  back  the  Constitution  signed  by 
his  father  won  him,  despite  the  general  contempt,  the 
absolute  confidence  of  the  men  he  had  saved — Pobiedo- 
nostsefif,  Serge,  Vladimir.  He  was  now  and  hencefor- 
ward the  indispensable  head  of  the  party  of  reactiort. 

Muravieff. 

At  the  same  date  he  enlisted  in  his  service  the  younger 
Muravieff  and  his  brother,  a  diplomat  and  lobbyist  of 
talent.  Indeed,  the  two  Muravieffs  both  stood  well  at 
Court  ;  their  uncle  the  Hangman  had  given  the  best 
proofs  of  his  attachment  to  Tsarism.  Plehve  looked  upon 
them  as  invaluable  auxiliaries,  and  pushed  their  fortunes 
all  he  could.     At  his  recommendation   Muravieff  was 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY    1 1 5 

sent  to  Paris  to  treat  for  the  extradition  of  the 
Nihilist  Hartmann.  He  subsequently  appointed  him 
Special  Prosecutor  for  political  suits,  since  no  one  else 
appeared  so  eloquent  nor  so  blindly  imbued  with  the 
principles  of  repression  by  brute  force.  He  was  to  see 
that  the  Nihilists  were  condemned  to  death.  Muravieff 
carried  out  his  orders  to  the  letter,  and  a  brilliant  career 
opened  before  him  under  Plehve's  auspices.  For  thirty 
years  these  two,  as  we  shall  see,  have  constituted  a  pair 
of  Siamese  twins,  who  by  their  combined  efforts  have 
destroyed  the  edifice  of  Russian  justice  from  top  to 
bottom. 

Plehve's  Privy  Papers. 

In  those  gloomy  years  when  Alexander  HI.  was 
whittling  sticks,  the  while  his  irresponsible  masters 
terrorised  him  with  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  dangers 
he  ran,  the  Head  of  the  Secret  Police  was  omnipotent,  a 
god  dispensing  life  and  death.  All  men  were  subject  to 
his  surveillance, — Tsar,  Grand  Dukes,  Ministers,  Generals, 
just  as  much  as  the  tramps  on  the  high  roads.  He 
utilised  this  power  to  fill  his  pigeon-holes  with  "  con- 
fidential papers."  A  knowledge  of  all  the  scandals  and 
misdemeanors  attaching  to  his  colleagues,  past,  present, 
and  to  come,  was  at  a  later  period  par  excellence  his 
armour  of  defence  and  weapon  of  offence  against  Liberal 
tendencies  in  general,  and  his  personal  enemies  in  par- 
ticular. The  Empire  became  a  den  of  thieves.  His  first 
victim  was  the  author  of  the  cancelled  Constitution  of 
Loris  Melikoff.  His  case  offers  a  fair  instance  of  Plehve's 
methods. 

Loris  Melikoff,  nominated  Dictator,  ruled  with  sove- 
reign power  at  the  time  of  the  tragic  death  of  Alex- 
ander H.      In  hunting  down  the  "Nihilists,"  and  on  the 

I  2 


ii6  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

pretext  that  he  suspected  them  of  being  partly  recruited 
from  the  higher  ranks  of  the  Bureaucracy,  Plehve  dis- 
played a  marvellous  talent  in  the  organisation  of  his 
cabinet  noir  (secret  service).  As  may  be  supposed,  he 
employed  this  instrument  of  investigation,  like  all  the 
rest,  exclusively  in  favour  of  his  machinations  against 
those  Ministers  whom  he  wanted  primarily  to  be  rid  of. 
About  the  "  security  of  the  State  "  he  troubled  himself 
not  a  whit ;  its  insecurity  was  the  guarantee  of  his 
personal  power.  Loris  Melikoff  himself  was  conscious  of 
the  closest  surveillance  on  the  part  of  his  subordinate, 
and  complained  of  it  bitterly. 

This  is  proved  by  an  extract  from  a  letter  addressed 
by  the  Dictator  to  one  of  his  friends,  a  General  Officer : 

"...  It  is  really  too  much.  Both  my  colleagues  and 
myself,  everyone  of  us,  are  at  the  mercy  of  this  in- 
dividual. All  our  letters  are  opened,  and  presumably 
copied.  He  has  the  run  of  all,  even  the  private  and 
confidential,  documents  that  reach  us  ;  and  I  have  no 
doubt  whatever  that,  on  occasions,  he  makes  use  of  any 
that  serve  his  purpose.  Yet  I  can  do  nothing  because, 
under  this  new  regime,  he  is  indispensable  as  Head  of  the 
Police.  I  advise  you,  therefore,  never  to  send  me  letters 
by  the  post  nor  telegraphic  messages.  Make  arrange- 
ments for  their  reaching  me  by  the  hands  of  acquaint- 
ances calling  here,  or  by  special  messenger.  .  .  " 

What  could  be  more  suggestive  than  such  a  com- 
plaint ?  and  what  more  curious  than  this  impotence  of 
powerful  Ministers,  unable  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
malefactor  and  his  nefarious  doings  ?  But  Plehve  was  in- 
dispensable to  the  Grand  Dukes  and  to  Pobiedonostseff. 
The  precautions  Melikoff  suggested  came  too  late.  Plehve 
had  already  possessed  himself  of  certain  of  his  letters 
containing   scathing   denunciations   of    the    clandestine 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  117 

suppression  of  the  Constitution.  The  Dictator  was  a 
Revolutionist !  Vladimir  submitted  the  papers  to  the 
Hermit  of  Gatshina.  After  a  bitter  scene  of  explanation 
between  Tsar  and  Dictator,  the  latter  resigned  office. 

Instead  of  Plehve,  however,  too  young  and — too 
dangerous,  Makoff,  a  notorious  peculator,  was  called  to 
the  Ministry  of  the  Interior. 

He  remained  only  two  months  in  office.  His  right 
arm,  of  course,  was  Plehve,  who,  since  he  controlled  the 
Secret  Service,  was  in  a  position  to  keep  his  superior 
posted  in  all  the  private  affairs  of  other  politicians.  A 
regular  system  of  police  blackmail  could  thus  be  in- 
stituted. Mysterious  disappearances  of  public  funds 
never  of  course,  for  good  reasons,  cleared  up  by  Plehve 
rounded  off  this  regime.  The  scandal  was  so  great  that 
in  July,  1883,  Makoff  committed  suicide,  whereupon 
Plehve  lost  no  time  in  showing  up  his  indiscretions  .  .  . 
which  had  been  much  to  his  own  advantage.  In 
this  way  Plehve  succeeded  in  demonstrating  his  personal 
probity,  since  it  was  he  who  had  collected  the  documents 
that  ruined  the  immoral  and  nefarious  Minister. 


The  Creation  of  Anti-Semitism. 

To  show  his  gratitude  to  Pobiedonostseff  and  his 
pupils,  as  well  as  to  prove  his  orthodoxy  (double-dyed 
renegade  as  he  was)  of  the  purest  water,  Plehve  at  once 
proceeded  to  elaborate  his  laws  of  exception  against  the 
Jews,  whom  he  charged,  contrary  to  his  real  convictions, 
with  all  the  crimes  of  the  Revolutionists.  Meantime, 
the  hoped-for  promotion  hanging  fire,  he  had  recourse 
to  a  device  of  truly  diabolic  ingenuity  to  draw  attention 
to  the  pressing  importance  of  this  reform.     After  Loris 


ii8  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Melikoff's  fall,  he  saw  the  seat  of  power  occupied  by 
IgnatiefT,  a  mere  lay-figure,  equally  weak  and  pre- 
tentious. From  him  Plehve  at  once  obtained  a  free 
hand  to  create  the  diversion  against  the  Jews  which  was 
to  serve  as  safety  valve  for  the  popular  exasperation. 
Not  the  System  of  Government,  but  the  Jew,  was  to  be 
held  responsible  for  all  the  calamities  of  the  country. 
In  lieu  of  Tsarian  Autocracy  and  himself,  he  threw  to 
the  lions  .  .  .  the  Jews. 

The  grand  simplicity  of  Plehve's  policy  calls  for 
admiration.  Any  anti-semitic  propaganda  he  deemed 
superfluous.  Logically  he  was  convinced  that,  once 
a  few  hundred  Jews  were  massacred,  Anti-Semitism 
would  spring  up  spontaneously ;  in  fact,  from  the 
people's  point  of  view,  the  mere  fact  that  somewhere 
or  other  massacres  had  been  invoked  to  put  the  Jews 
to  rights  would  be  proof  positive  that  the  Jews  are  all 
scoundrels,  fit  only  to  be  cut  to  pieces.  Accordingly 
the  first  thing  to  be  done  was  to  organise  some 
massacres.  But  what  would  civilised  Europe  say? 
Witte  once  declared  "  there  is  only  one  thing  the 
Russian  Government  is  afraid  of,  the  indignation  of 
Europe."  Here  then  was  the  crux.  Let  us  prostrate 
ourselves  before  Plehve's  genius  in  solving  it ! 

Anti-Semitism  must  first  be  created  in  foreign 
countries  ;  then  later  on  it  can  be  asserted  for  Russia 
that  it  was  merely  an  importation  from  a  corrupted 
Europe  !  And  the  scheme  succeeded.  Russia  was 
ringed  round  with  a  circle  of  anti-semitic  countries. 
Of  these  the  most  important,  for  its  bearing  on  Russian 
eventualities,  was  Rumania. 

From  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  more  than  five 
thousand  police  agents  were  despatched  over  the 
frontier,  some  as   icondres,  hawkers   that  is  of  icons  or 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  119 

sacred  pictures,  others  as  conovales  or  travelling  horse- 
doctors.  These  redoubtable  emissaries  simultaneously 
created  the  violent  Anti-Semitism  that  still  dominates 
the  country,  and  the  Pan-Russian  movement.  The  task 
was  the  easier  from  the  fact  that  in  a  large  portion  of 
Russian  Bessarabia  the  Rumanian  element  prepon- 
derates. In  this  way  the  anti-semitic  agitation  in 
Rumania  spread  spontaneously  to  the  south-western 
regions  of  Russia. 

It  was  at  the  same  date  that  Anti-Semitism  began  to 
appear  in  Austria  and  Germany,  And  if,  as  regards 
Austria,  precise  information  is  lacking  at  present, 
it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  practically  certain  that  the 
anti-semitic  campaign  in  Germany  has  been  fostered 
almost  exclusively  by  funds  supplied  from  the  Russian 
Ministry  of  the  Interior,  and  distributed  by  the  hands 
of  several  families  of  the  Lithuanian  and  East  Elbe 
aristocracy,  who  acted  as  intermediaries. 

Thus  Anti-Semitism  in  Russia  was  merely  an  effect  of 
the  "  odious  foreign  influence,"  and  Plehve  could  wash 
his  hands  of  the  matter.  Educated  people  did  as 
they  did  in  Germany,  while  the  peasants  copied  the 
Rumanians. 

Plehve  imported  sixteen  hundred  Rumanian  fanatics 
to  Odessa,  where,  shepherded  by  the  agents  of  the  Chief 
of  Police,  they  executed  the  first  great  massacre.  .  .  . 

The  result  quite  answered  expectation.  The  whole 
south-west  of  Russia  rose  against  the  countless  hordes 
of  Jews  who  eke  out  a  miserable  existence  in  those 
provinces.  TJicy  caused  the  poverty  and  corruption,  and 
everything  else,  The  Press  itself,  censored  as  it  is  by 
the  police,  joined  in  this  cannibal  concert.  No  one  gave 
another  thought  to  the  Nihilists,  and  Plehve  undercover 
of  Anti-Semitism  enjoyed  the  felicity  of  annihilating  the 


I20  RUSSIA   FROM  WITHIN 

group   of  the  Narodna'ia    Volia  (Will   of  the   People), 
nucleus  of  the  Revolutionary  agitation. 

Yet  again  Plehve  was  admired  as  heartily  as  he  was 
despised.  Ignatieff  fell.  Plehve's  great  hour,  however, 
was  not  yet  come.  On  the  contrary,  he  had  next  to  do 
with  a  Chief  of  another,  and  much  superior,  calibre,  with 
the  result  that  he  enriched  the  pages  of  Russian  history 
with  an  episode  that  reads  like  a  chapter  from  the  feuille- 
ton  of  a  daily  paper. 


Plehve  the  Conspirator. 

Dmitri  Andreevitch  Tolstoi,  an  ultra-reactionary,  was 
Minister  of  the  Interior.  Despotic  to  a  degree,  he  made 
no  ado  about  interfering  occasionally  in  the  department 
of  the  omnipotent  Plehve,  Chief  of  Police.  The  latter 
was  deeply  offended.  Moreover,  he  aspired  to  the 
preponderating  place  at  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior,  but 
as  he  was  still  too  young  to  be  appointed  Minister,  he 
wished  to  instal  in  this  important  office  a  man  of  utter 
insignificance,  on  whom  he  could  rely,  and  whose 
assessor  he  would  be. 

Two  things  were  needful.  First,  to  create  a  vacancy, 
in  other  words  to  get  Tolstoi  killed  by  the  Nihilists  ; 
then  to  find  the  man  for  the  vacancy  :  and  this,  given 
the  circumstances,  could  only  be  the  individual  who 
should  have  covered  himself  with  glory  by  laying 
hands  on  the  ringleaders  of  the  revolutionary  move- 
ment. 

The  man  plainly  indicated  was  Sudeikin,  Plehve's 
ordinary  factotum,  his  Colonel  of  Gendarmerie,  an 
unscrupulous  martinet  who  carried  into  execution  what 
Plehve    planned — dull-witted,  and    ambitious    into   the 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  121 

bargain.  By  Plehve's  orders  he  opened  negotiations 
with  the  most  ambitious  of  the  Nihilists,  Degaieff,  of 
whose  equivocal  attitude  he  was  aware,  from  confidential 
reports.  It  was  at  DegafefTs  house  that  the  Nihilists 
met  regularly  in  secret  conclave.  Sudeikin,  proposing 
at  Plehve's  suggestion  the  assassination  of  the  Minister 
Tolstoi,  won,  if  not  the  confidence,  at  any  rate  the 
attention  of  Degaieff.  The  latter,  confident  of  his 
ability  to  have  him  "  put  out  of  the  way,"  if  he  should 
prove  a  traitor,  admitted  him  along  with  the  other 
Nihilists,  thus  affording  the  spectacle  of  police  and 
revolutionists  plotting  together. 

It  was  a  dangerous  game  for  all  concerned.  However, 
directly  Sudeikin  saw  or  thought  he  saw  that  Degaieff's 
ambitions  were  stronger  than  his  convictions,  he 
confided  Plehve's  plan  to  him.  And  this  was  his 
simple  project,  Degaieff  was  to  organise  the  assassi- 
nation of  Tolstoi,  Plehve  would  be  kept  informed, 
and  would  have  certain  Nihilists  (but  not  the  real 
offenders)  arrested  by  Sudeikin  ;  later  on  these  would 
be  allowed  to  escape.  Sudeikin  could  easily  make 
out  that  he  held  the  whole  governing  body  of  the 
Revolutionary  party  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  Then, 
Plehve  aiding  and  abetting,  Sudeikin  would  be  made 
Minister  of  the  Interior  with  Plehve  as  Vice-Minister.  On 
the  other  side,  Degaieff  himself  would  be  appointed  Head 
of  the  Police.  Degaieff,  as  he  confessed  later,  jumped 
at  the  offer,  telling  himself  that  in  such  a  post  he  could 
be  guided  by  circumstances,  and  act  cither  against  the 
Government  or  against  his  own  party.  Both  ways  he 
stood  to  win.  Some  even  of  his  fellow  conspirators, 
believing  him  to  be  honest,  foresaw  a  prodigious  triumph 
for  the  party  in  his  eventual  appointment.  Meantime, 
Plehve  demanded  pledges  of  Degaieff s  good  faith  from 


122  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

a  police  point  of  view.  The  latter  did  not  hesitate,  but 
betrayed  to  Plehve  the  two  most  notorious  of  the  female 
Revolutionists,  whose  capture  was  eagerly  desired,  and 
would  mean  a  big  success  for  the  two  confederates. 
Vera  Figner  and  Mme.  Volkenstein  were  thus  arrested. 
The  one  languished  for  twenty  years  in  the  casemates 
of  Schlusselburg,  whence  she  was  released  in  1904,  and 
deported  for  the  rest  of  her  days  to  Archangel  in  the 
extreme  North  of  Russia  ;  the  other  was  liberated  some 
few  years  ago. 

Degaieffs  treachery  was  soon  discovered  by  the 
other  Revolutionists,  and  from  that  moment  the  success 
of  the  plot  was  compromised,  because  in  these  con- 
ditions no  member  of  the  Association  would  agree 
to  "  suppress "  Tolstoi.  Plehve  was  immediately  in- 
formed of  the  facts  ;  and  as  Degaieff's  treachery 
had  already  procured  a  triumph  for  his  Department, 
he  abandoned  the  project  and  left  Sudeikin  and 
Degaieff  in  the  lurch.  Plehve  was  sure  of  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  former,  since  he  could  denounce  him 
as  a  friend  of  the  Nihilists.  The  second  would,  he 
was  convinced,  suffer  the  vengeance  of  his  comrades. 
Nay,  he  actually  reported  the  details  of  the  conspiracy 
against  Tolstoi  to  the  Tsar  without  naming  Sudeikin, 
and  was  warmly  congratulated  on  having  discovered  the 
plot  he  had  hatched  himself!  He  had  his  reward,  and 
obtained  the  post  he  coveted. 

Degaieff  was  cited  to  appear  before  the  Revolutionary 
Committee.  He  cut  a  somewhat  sorry  figure,  but  avowed 
his  double  dealing  with  a  frankness  that  went  a  long 
way  towards  redeeming  its  heinousness  in  the  eyes  of 
his  associates.  He  produced  documentary  evidence  of 
everything  he  alleged.  It  was  resolved  that  Sudeikin 
was  a  more  abominable  traitor  than  Degaieff,  and  the 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  123 

latter   was    ordered  to  "suppress"   Sudeikin,  and    this 
done,  to  vanish  into  foreign  parts. 

Degaieff  organised  the  affair.  On  December  28,  1883, 
he  and  his  companions  forced  their  way  into  the  betrayed 
traitor's  apartments.  They  chased  the  unhappy  wretch 
from  room  to  room,  and  after  a  terrible  struggle, 
managed  to  hustle  him  into  the  closets,  where  they 
battered  in  his  skull  with  the  housebreaker's  tools  they 
brought  with  them.  An  hour  later,  Degaieff,  forsaking 
hearth  and  home,  took  train  for  the  frontier,  and  sailed 
for  America,  where  he  still  lives. 


Constitution  of  the  Oligarchical  Group. 

Plehve  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief  The  sole  vestiges  of 
the  conspiracy  were  the  two  unhappy  women  in  the 
State  prisons,  and  the  largely  increased  importance  of 
His  Excellency  von  Plehve,  now  Vice- Minister. 

At  this  time,  therefore  (1884),  close  ties  of  common 
interest  already  united  the  Grand  Dukes,  the  Empress, 
Pobiedonostseff,  Plehve  and  Muravieff.  No  systematic 
course  of  action  was  as  yet  possible.  Indeed,  it  is  open 
to  doubt,  in  a  cursory  view,  whether  the  constitution  of 
the  coming  Oligarchy  ^nd  the  details  of  its  accession  to 
absolute  power,  really  deserve,  in  the  history  of  the  per- 
revolutionary  period,  so  prominent  a  place  as  is  here 
assigned  to  them.  But  the  very  point  which  differ- 
entiates this  period  from  analogous  epochs  in  other 
countries  is  precisely  this  preponderance  of  individual 
influence  over  the  collective  opinion.  The  gradual 
transformation  of  popular  notions  shows  itself  not  as 
a  spontaneous  evolution  of  the   mental  attitude  of  the 


124  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

masses,  nor  even  as  a  democratic  reaction  in  the  abstract 
against  a  system,  but  rather  as  a  protest  against  the 
individual  acts  of  particular  persons  whose  arbitrary 
executive  is  elevated  into  a  principle  of  government. 
It  has  been  the  curse  of  Russia  to  be  ruled  not  by  a 
detestable  system,  but  by  detestable  individuals.  The 
secret  springs  of  the  Revolution  are  found  not  in  its 
opposition  to  a  regime^  i.e.,  an  abstraction  of  the  collect- 
ive activity  of  a  ruling  caste,  but  in  its  hatred  for  the 
individuals  administering  the  regime,  who  have  turned 
it  to  their  personal  advantage.  For  this  reason  the 
Oligarchy,  of  which  Plehve  was  the  chief  instrument, 
has  probably  exercised  a  more  important  influence  on 
the  fate  of  Russia  than  even  the  awakening  of  the 
popular  conscience. 

Plehve,  Assistant-Minister  of  the  Interior,  yet  at  the 
same  time  a  police  agent,  and  scorned  as  such,  soon 
realised  the  necessity  of  an  organised  Oligarchy.  But 
he  saw  only  too  clearly  that  he  could  never  master  the 
elements  then  predominant.  Pobiedonostseff,  a  high 
philosopher,  looked  down  upon  him  as  a  mere  cook 
concocting  the  political  broth  of  the  day.  Katkoff, 
even,  who  was  in  some  sort  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
"  public  opinion  "  of  the  reaction,  and  who  interpreted 
in  leading  articles  the  theories  of  the  civil  Pontiff,  could 
not  well  respect  him.  It  was  a  question  of  tempera- 
ment. Katkoff  worked  in  open  daylight,  in  all  the  glare 
of  journalistic  publicity  ;  Plehve's  activity  was  confined 
to  the  darkling  regions  of  the  secret  police.  Then  began 
the  amalgamation  of  these  diverse  elements  by  the 
Moscow  group,  whose  arrivisme,  lacking  alike  in  prin- 
ciple and  temperament,  was  to  woo  and  win  the  support 
of  all  the  reactionary  leaders  without  exception  or 
distinction. 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  125 

Of  this  group  the  two  quickest  to  get  into  their  stride, 
as  the  jockeys  say,  were  Petrovski  and  Vanlialarski. 
The  first  was  connected  through  his  family  with  the 
famous,  or  rather  infamous,  Katkoff,  who  was  at  that 
period  rather  by  way  of  being  the  Gambetta  of  the 
Reaction.  Petrovski  was  his  private  secretary,  and 
at  the  same  time  Assistant  Editor  of  the  Moskovskiya 
Viedomosti.  His  interest  in  reactionary  circles  grew 
pari  passu  with  that  of  his  notorious  chief  Under 
the  administration  of  Dmitri  Tolstoi  again,  he  came 
into  contact,  through  Katkoff,  with  the  world  of 
Government  officials,  in  which  his  chief  was  the 
leading  spirit.  Even  in  these  early  days  he  knew 
Plehve,  head  of  the  political  police,  and  backed  up 
his  brutal  methods  with  all  the  weight  of  his  journal. 
Using  KatkofTs  influence,  and  anxious  to  attach  the 
group  of  his  old  comrades  to  Plehvc's  fortunes, 
l^etrovski  got  his  friend  Pusanoff  appointed  Colonel 
of  Gendarmerie  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  Orderly  Officer 
to  Dmitri  Tolstoi.  Thus  Pusanoff  became  Plehvc's  right- 
hand  man,  and  one  of  the  few  initiated  into  the  secrets 
of  the  reactionary  Government.  (On  the  death  of 
Katkoff,  Petrovski  took  his  place  on  the  Moskovskiya 
Viedomosti,  as  also  in  the  reactionary  faction  at  Court, 
and  even  in  the  counsels  of  the  Empress  and  her  chief 
adviser,  Pobiedonostseff.)  Their  journal,  the  daily 
commentator  and  consistent  apologist  of  the  regime 
which  ke[)t  Alexander  III.  whittling  sticks,  was 
universally  regarded  as  the  accredited  organ  of 
Tsarism  ;  and  I'etrovski,  in  concert  with  the  rest 
of  his  allies  of  the  Moscow  group,  found  it  possible 
in  some  degree  to  unify  Pobiedonostseffs  theory; 
Plehvc's  practice,  and  the  aspirations  of  the  reactionary 
Grand    Dukes.     In  a  country  where,  so  to  speak,  the 


126  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Press  does  not  exist,  a  newspaper  was  the  true 
originator  of  the  most  powerful  political  group. 
By  publicly  expounding  the  details  of  a  common 
course  of  action,  as  yet  non-existent,  it  actually 
brought  this  community  of  action  into  being.  The 
Moskovskiya  Viedomosti  created  a  Governmental  group 
consisting  of  Katkoff,  Petrovski,  Pusanoff,  Plehve, 
Pobiedonostseff,  the  Grand  Dukes,  and  the  Empress. 

Muravieff,  now  as  always  backed  by  Plehve,  soon  held 
an  influential  position  in  it.  His  star  rose  about  1887, 
when  Manassein  was  Minister  of  Justice.  He  first  came 
to  the  front  in  connection  with  a  typical  stroke  of 
business.  Alexander  III.,  under  the  sinister  influence 
of  Pobiedonostseff  and  Plehve,  resented  his  father's 
action  in  granting  the  people  some  semblance  of  justice, 
viz.,  the  Courts  of  Assize  and  Justices  of  the  Peace. 
These  institutions  were  highly  popular  with  the  masses  ; 
and,  therefore,  clergy,  police,  and  Emperor  resolved  to 
abolish  them.  To  effect  this,  however,  required,  accord- 
ing to  the  Imperial  statute,  the  co-operation  of  the 
Minister  of  Justice,  the  Council  of  the  Empire  and  the 
Senate.  Everybody  refused,  and  a  man  of  straw  devoid 
of  principles  or  scruples  became  necessary  to  save  the 
situation.  Manassein  resigned,  and  Muravieff  under- 
took to  carry  the  thing  through.  On  this  condition  he 
was  appointed  Minister.  The  Tsar  exhibited  an  absurd 
prejudice  against  breaking  the  dynastic  Constitution. 
It  was  necessary  to  win  over  the  Senate  and  the 
Council  of  the  Empire  ;  but  despite  the  united  threats 
of  Plehve  and  Muravieff  this  was  found  impossible. 
Only  the  Courts  of  Justice  were  abolished.  Still 
Muravieff  was  in  office,  and  his  collaboration  with 
Plehve  could  henceforth  be  counted  upon  to  produce 
the  expected  results  in  the  way  of  reducing  the  country 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY   127 

to  proper  subjection  under  the  high  officials  of  the 
Bureaucracy,  and  modifying  the  laws  to  suit  the 
arbitrary  executive  of  the  officials. 


Court,  Army,  and  Police. 

Nevertheless,  no  real  confidence  or  co-operation  as 
yet  existed  between  the  different  professional  groups  of 
which  Katkoff's  journal  was  the  common  mouthpiece. 
It  became  a  question  how  to  remove  the  natural  dis- 
trust which  the  Court  entertained  towards  the  journal- 
ists, police  officials,  lawyers,  and  functionaries  generally, 
all  belonging  to  a  class  but  recently  emerged  from  the 
bosom  of  the  despised  masses.  One  element  only  could 
give  the  necessary  point  of  union,  viz.,  the  military. 
Pusanoff,  Petrovski,  and  Plehve  planned  to  utilise  the 
remaining  members  of  the  Moscow  group  of  comrades 
to  this  end,  although  an  event  of  considerable  import 
had  already  consecrated  their  power.  Katkoff  had  an- 
nounced in  his  journal,  in  so  many  words,  that  the 
Chancellor  Giers  was  a  negligible  quantity  in  Russia, 
and  this  at  the  very  time  when  the  diplomatist  in  ques- 
tion was  experiencing  the  greatest  difficulty  in  staving 
off  a  war  with  Germany  (1887);  he  had  expressed  the 
view  that  a  Franco-German  war  was  Russia's  best  hope, 
because  in  that  case  Tsarism  could  simultaneously  force 
its  friendship  (and  get  good  value  for  it)  on  France,  and 
its  wishes  on  Germany,  weakened  by  the  struggle. 
War  was  imminent,  but  Giers  disavowed  Katkoff  and 
succeeded  in  avoiding  it.  Katkoff,  for  his  part,  dis- 
avowed Giers,  and  openly  defied  him  to  carry  out  his 
policy  against  the  wishes  of  his  paper.  I  le  was  sum- 
moned to  an  interview  with  the  Tsar,  to  whom  Giers 
proposed  two  alternatives — to  accept  his  resignation,  or 


128  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

to  reduce  Katkoff  to  silence.  Alexander  III.  did 
neither,  and  from  that  time  forth  the  group  of  the 
Viedomosti  was  recognised  as  the  supreme  power  of  the 
country.  A  reconciliation  between  the  personnel  of  the 
Court  and  this  occult  association  became  only  the  more 
urgent. 

Such  influence  as  Petrovski  and  the  Muraviefifs 
possessed  at  Court  would  hardly  secure  the  advancement 
of  the  Moscow  group  of  officers.  But  fortunately  the 
god  of  love  came  to  the  rescue.  Vanlialarski,  a  hand- 
some, muscular  fellow,  a  prime  favourite  with  the  noble 
ladies  of  the  Court,  to  which  his  family  connexions  had 
gained  him  admission,  was  fortunate  enough  to  win  the 
affections  of  one  of  the  most  powerful,  and  most  dis- 
solute, of  the  Grand  Duchesses,  whose  name  it  would 
be  indiscreet  to  mention,  as  she  is  still  living.  The  great 
lady  could  refuse  her  adorer  nothing,  neither  place  nor 
favour ;  and  the  gallant  soldier's  good  fortune  extended 
to  his  friends,  taking  the  form  of  numberless  promotions. 
The  gifts  and  graces  of  this  group  of  comrades,  till  then 
buried  in  obscurity,  burst  upon  an  admiring  court,  and 
Grand  Dukes  and  Grand  Duchesses  vied  with  each  other 
in  seeking  their  society.  The  civil  section  embracing 
Petrovski,  Plehve,  Muravieff,  Pusanoff  and  their  con- 
geners, which  already  turned  to  advantage  in  its  vast 
financial  operations  the  special  and  exceptional  talent 
of  one  of  its  members,  Bezobrazoff,  now  found  itself 
happily  completed  by  a  military  section,  filled  with  the 
same  aspirations,  and  favoured  by  those  very  members 
of  the  Imperial  family  who  would  have  looked  askance 
at  the  other  coterie  as  smacking  overmuch  of  police 
associations. 

Henceforth   the   group   could    make    itself  felt   as  a 
factor  in  imperial  politics.     Controlling  the  police,  the 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  129 

administration  of  justice,  the  reactionary  Press  and  a 
proportion  01  military  officers  in  high  command,  it 
entered  upon  the  path  of  reaction,  of  reforms  reversed 
(as  will  be  seen  later),  intended  to  free  it  from  the 
obligation  of  invoking  the  supreme  authority  to  sanction 
each  several  act,  while  it  simultaneously  cultivated  the 
field  of  business  politics,  so  as  to  confirm  and  strengthen 
its  pecuniary  resources.  At  this  rate  the  Grand  Ducal 
clique  was  likely  to  become  more  or  less  futile  ;  its  only 
chance,  therefore,  of  maintaining  itself  in  power  lay  in 
participating  boldly  in  the  enterprises  of  the  conspira- 
tors, so  as  to  preserve  at  least  the  moral  control  of  their 
activity.  The  result  was  the  consolidation  of  the  group 
on  a  definitive  and  indissoluble  basis.  Sundry  tools  of 
the  Grand  Dukes  joined  the  higher  ranks  of  the 
Bureaucracy,  from  which  kinsmen  of  the  Tsar  are 
excluded.  Vladimir  supplied  the  military  element  to 
recruit  the  band  of  the  Sakharoffs  and  Vanlialarskis — 
men  like  VVahl,  Kleigels,  Sukhomlinoff,  Chertkoff, — 
worthy  representatives  of  their  patron.  Serge,  still 
under  the  ferule  of  Pobiedonostseff,  and  mainly  con- 
cerned with  religious  interests,  pushed  forward  his 
particular  proteges  Sipiaguine,  Bogoliepoff,  ZvierefT, 
Buliguine,  Trepoff,  along  the  same  path.  Holding  for 
the  present  posts  of  more  or  less  insignificance,  these 
men  were  equally  dependent  on  the  Moscow  group,  now 
at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  on  the  Grand  Dukes.  To 
some  degree  they  formed  the  connecting  link  binding 
the  two  together. 

The  dominating  idea  of  this  enlarged  and  extended 
Oligarchy  was  to  enslave  the  heir-apparent,  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas,  before  his  accession  to  power,  and  to 
impose  upon  him  beforehand  a  type  of  policy  in  accord- 
ance with  its  own  interests.  What  was  this  policy  to  be? 

K 


I30  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

To  leave  Russia  in  the  hands  of  the  Ohgarchy,  and 
pursue  distant  projects  of  aggrandisement  profitable 
to  the  exchequer  and  redounding  to  the  glory  of  the 
conspirators.  A  grand  opportunity  presented  itself  for 
removing  the  future  Tsar  from  the  sphere  of  his  primary 
duties. 

At  this  date  the  Grand  Duke  and  heir-apparent 
Nicholas  had  fallen  victim  to  some  extravagant  passion 
or  other,  and  was  to  be  banished  for  a  while  from  the 
scene  of  his  exploits.  A  voyage  round  the  world  was 
decided  on,  and  naval  officers  at  Court  began  one  and 
all  intriguing  for  the  supreme  favour  of  commanding  the 
ship  destined  to  bear  the  fortunes  of  Russia's  future 
monarch.  The  business  man  of  the  Oligarchy,  Bezo- 
brazoff,  who  had  thoroughly  studied  the  subject  of 
English  colonisation,  dangled  the  dazzling  financial 
splendours  of  a  policy  of  expansion  before  his  com- 
rades' eyes.  Military  expeditions  would  bring  fame 
and  fortune  to  the  Generals  and  Admirals  ;  enterprises 
in  distant  parts  would  bring  grist  to  everybody's  mill  ; 
the  diplomatic  world,  still  as  always  ruled  by  the  nobility, 
and,  therefore,  the  implacable  enemy  of  the  group,  would 
find  its  energies  employed  elsewhere ;  the  Tsar's  atten- 
tion would  be  diverted  from  internal  affairs.  All  these 
results  might  be  gained  by  the  clever  organisation  of  the 
tour ;  and  Bezobrazoff  set  to  work  to  pull  the  secret 
wires.  Obviously  the  general  arrangements  could  only 
be  entrusted  to  the  one  man  who  knew  Asia  best,  a 
personal  friend  of  the  Grand  Duke,  Prince  Oukhtomski, 
whose  enthusiasm  for  the  East  would  work  unwittingly 
in  favour  of  what  all  desired.  As  captain  of  the  ship 
Bezobrazoff  had  his  eye  on  an  officer,  a  persona  grata  at 
Court,  albeit  utterly  unscrupulous,  an  Armenian  as  wily 
as   his   fellow-countrymen   always   are,    mixed    up    in 


ADVENT  OF  THE  BUREAUCRACY  131 

financial  affairs  and  devoted  to  the  general  policy  of  the 
group.  His  name  was  Alexeieff".  He  had  a  formidable 
rival  in  Avellane,  also  a  very  useful  ally,  but  unfortu- 
nately so  heavy-witted  and  maladroit  there  was  no 
blunder  he  might  not  commit.  Intricate  negotiations 
followed.  Vanlialarski  invoked  his  amorous  exploits  of 
an  earlier  day.  But  while  Vladimir,  at  his  wife's 
instance,  thenceforth  supported  Alexeieff,  the  Grand 
Admiral  Alexis  backed  up  Avellane.  Eventually  the 
latter  retired  from  the  contest  under  promise  of  receiving 
the  command  of  Kronstadt  and  a  brilliant  foreign 
mission.  Thus  Alexeieff  made  his  entry  into  history  by 
the  backstairs  of  a  Grand  Ducal  bedchamber. 

Everthing  turned  out  as  provided  for.  Bezobrazoff" 
happened  to  be  at  Vladivostok  when  the  Prince  arrived 
there.  Nicholas  could  make  no  head  against  such  a 
consensus  of  opinion — Oukhtomski,  preaching  the  amal- 
gamation of  the  Slavonic  and  Turanian  races  ;  Alexeieff, 
descanting  on  the  glory  of  ruling  the  Pacific  and  the 
facility  of  political  expansion  ;  last,  but  not  least, 
Bezobrazoff",  fondly  invoking  the  seductions  of  India, 
and  prophesying  the  fabulous  enrichment  of  Russia  by 
the  development  of  commerce  with  the  Far  East.  His 
feeble  brain  took  the  desired  impress  ;  and  as  the  same 
influences  continued  to  be  exerted  without  intermission 
for  a  whole  year  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others,  it 
remained  ineffaceable,  and  set  a  definite  and  distinctive 
stamp  on  the  mental  attitude  of  the  future  Tsar.  By 
the  time  Nicholas  came  back,  he  regarded  Russian  ex- 
pansion from  end  to  end  of  Asia  as  the  all-important 
aim,  the  most  sublime  glory,  of  his  reign,  which  began 
soon  afterwards.  .  .  . 

When  Nicholas  mounted  the  throne,  the  Oligarchy, 
therefore,  had  not  only  transformed  his  Empire  into  a 

K  2 


132  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

scheme  for  the  benefit  of  a  bureaucratic  clique,  and  con- 
fined his  duties  as  a  Sovereign  to  the  registration  of  the 
decrees  formulated  by  a  secret  government,  but  it  had 
likewise  paved  the  way  for  that  policy  of  expansion  in 
Asia  which  was  one  day  to  serve  as  a  safety-valve 
against  popular  protests,  and  at  the  same  time  form  a 
superlative  source  of  wealth  and  glory. 

But  at  the  very  moment  when  omnipotence  seemed 
well  within  the  grasp  of  this  occult  combination,  when 
the  bureaucratic  chiefs  were  exulting  over  those  orgies 
of  illegality  and  spoliation  which  are  to  be  described 
later  on,  the  peace  of  the  conspirators  was  rudely  broken 
by  the  sudden  appearance  of  a  formidable  "  outsider," 
an  unsuspected  "dark  horse,"  whose  rough,  un- 
compromising energy  upset  their  plans  for  ten  long 
years,  and  turned  their  golden  age  into  a  time  of  dark 
and  desperate  struggle,  even  more  disastrous  to  the 
country  at  large  than  their  unchecked  depredations 
would  have  been.  For  this  struggle  brought  with  it 
profound  changes  in  the  constitution  of  an  enslaved 
society,  an  aggravation  of  oppression,  but  an  aggravation 
likewise  of  the  general  wretchedness  which  prepared 
the  way  for  the  National  Awakening  and  the  Revolution. 

This  skeleton  at  the  feast  was  Serguei  Yulievitch 
Witte 


CHAPTER    III 

WITTE'S  REGIME 

It  was  with  more  of  amazement  than  ot  apprehension 
that  the  reactionary  Oh'garchy  saw  the  attainment  of 
power  by  a  "  man  of  no  account "  at  a  time  when  it 
already  seemed  to  control  all  the  military  and  adminis- 
trative forces  of  Tsardom.  A  bureaucrat,  like  every- 
body else,  the  little  parvenu  must  obviously  seek  the 
support  of  the  great  and  powerful,  and  could  only  do  so 
by  making  himself  useful  to  them.  The  profound 
ignorance  of  all  the  principles  of  political  economy  on 
the  part  of  Grand  Dukes,  Generals,  Admirals,  Police 
Officials  and  Legists  alike,  nay,  even  their  business 
advisers  themselves  (who  were  not  so  much  financiers  as 
sharpers),  led  them  to  look  upon  the  administration 
of  the  finances  of  the  Empire  as  a  mere  organisation 
of  tax-collectors,  whose  business  was  to  extort  a 
maximum  of  money  from  the  population — money 
subsequently  employed  in  improving  the  material 
condition  and  moral  prestige  of  the  Court  and  higher 
Bureaucracy.  Any  notion  as  to  the  economic  well- 
being  of  the  country  was  utterly  foreign  to  their  minds. 
They  had  heard  of  such  a  thing,  but  they  confounded 
it  with  the  theory  of  individual   liberty,  and  even  with 


134  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

revolutionary  ideas.  In  fact,  up  to  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Alexander  III.,  the  Ministry  of  Finance  had  re- 
mained quite  a  secondary  wheel  of  the  machine  of 
State  in  Russia.  The  interests  of  the  ruling  Oligarchy 
centred  in  popular  oppression  in  every  form  and  shape. 
Their  conception  of  government  was  the  Asiatic  idea 
of  a  mass  of  people  exploited  for  the  advantage  of  their 
rulers  by  military  and  police  coercion.  The  great 
lessons  of  modern  European  history  had  passed  them 
by.  To  regard  the  State,  as  England,  America,  France 
and  Germany  had  come  to  do,  as  an  entity  pre- 
eminently and  essentially  economic,  required  a  mental 
effort  of  which  they  were  entirely  incapable.  Finance 
was  a  thing  apart,  an  auxiliary  means  of  oppression, 
a  "  professional  "  matter  that  should  not,  so  they  thought, 
exercise  the  least  appreciable  influence  on  politics. 

They  made  no  resistance  to  Witte's  advancement, 
although  the  latter  was  already  credited  with  ultra- 
modern tendencies.  But  they  would  have  certainly 
put  in  force  against  him  all  the  sinister  resources  of 
their  intrigues  if  they  had  had  the  smallest  inkling 
of  the  preponderant  role  which  the  economic  question 
was  destined  to  assume  under  the  auspices  of  this 
remarkable  man.  No  doubt  all  through  Nicholas' 
reign  the  reactionary  Oligarchy  has  governed  Russia, 
administered,  oppressed,  exploited  her,  and  finally 
brought  her  to  that  condition  of  wretchedness  and 
consequent  desperation  of  which  we  shall  meet  with 
characteristic  proofs  further  on.  But  during  the  same 
space  of  time,  with  an  independency  of  action  more  or  less 
pronounced,  Witte  has  overturned  from  top  to  bottom 
the  whole  economic  structure  of  the  Empire,  interfering 
in  the  little  transactions  of  the  other  bureaucrats  with 
brutal    roughness,    encroaching    occasionally   on    their 


WITTE'S  REGIME  135 

prerogatives  to  the  profit  of  his  personal  plans,  eclipsing 
them  every  one  to  pose  in  the  eyes  of  the  outside  world 
as  the  representative  figure  of  a  Russia  modernised  little 
by  little  every  day,  overtopping  the  Tsar  himself  by  his 
disquieting  prestige,  due  to  the  dazzling  parade  of 
economic  power  with  which  he  cleverly  invested  a 
decaying  regime  and  a  nation  expiring  beneath  the 
weight  of  its  woes.  Witte's  activity  is  the  life  of  Russia 
from  the  accession  of  Nicholas  to  the  eve  of  the 
Russo-Japanese  War.  If  all  his  work  has  remained 
factitious,  this  is  the  fault  of  the  reactionary  Oligarchy, 
which,  after  realising  the  irresistible  forces  that  were 
awakening  in  Russia  outside  its  own  narrow  circle, 
only  redoubled  in  zeal  in  its  malign  course  of  action, 
under  pretence  of  combating  a  "  revolution  "  that  was 
nothing  really  but  an  aggregate  of  reforms,  dangerous 
only  by  reason  of  their  possible  counter-effects. 

Witte's  governmental  activity  constitutes,  as  much 
from  the  standpoint  of  Tsarian  as  from  that  of  popular 
interests,  the  most  important  element  in  the  course  of 
events  preliminary  to  the  Revolution.  Plis  leading  idea, 
that  of  making  Russia  into  a  modern  State,  the  living 
forces  of  which  reside  in  its  industrial  and  commercial 
capitalism,  the  essential  tendencies  of  which  are  those  of 
augmentation  of  the  popular  well-being  by  means  of  the 
development  of  natural  resources,  is  as  a  concei)tion  by 
its  very  nature  incompatible  with  that  of  Tsardom  or  of 
a  bureaucratic  Oligarchy.  For  its  instrument,  if  not  its 
object,  can  only  be  the  creation  of  two  social  classes, 
hitherto  non-existent  in  Russia,  and  with  which  Tsardom 
and  Bureaucracy  alike  inevitably  find  themselves  en- 
gaged in  a  ruthless  struggle — the  capitalist  bourgeoisie 
and  the  industrial  proletariat.  These  are  the  very  two 
classes,  which  in  intellectual  grasp  and  s[)irit  of  enter- 


136  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

prise  far  surpass  all  the  rest,  the  classes  whose  rise 
could  not  fail  to  be  signalised  by  an  opposition,  ever 
more  and  more  violent,  to  a  system  of  government  based 
exclusively  upon  the  subservience  of  crowds  of  un- 
educated peasants,  bound  to  the  soil,  and  upon  an 
official  caste  existing  on  the  crumbs  that  fell  from  the 
table  of  debauched  Princes.  Whether  Witte  meant 
thus  to  lay  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  old  pseudo- 
patriarchal  Tsardom  is  more  than  doubtful ;  but  this 
much  is  certain,  that  he  foresaw  grave  economic  crises. 
Ten  years  ago  he  spoke  out  in  these  characteristic 
words:  "If,  under  my  system,  crises  arise,  if  there 
are  failures  and  losses,  and  temporary  impoverishment 
with  all  its  inevitable  serious  consequences,  we  must 
not  be  over  anxious.  They  are  the  complaints  of 
childhood,  incidental  to  all  nations  entering  upon  the 
modern  epoch." 

This  transformation  of  these  inevitable  economic 
crises  into  a  purely  political  crisis,  as  much  by  an 
inherent  and  natural  development  as  by  the  constant 
rebound  of  the  oligarchical  regime  upon  Witte's  activity, 
is  precisely  the  factor  that  has  dominated  the  last  decade 
of  Tsardom  even  more  than  the  weight  of  reactionary 
oppression.  Tsardom  realised  too  late  that  the 
economic  condition  of  the  people  is  what  really 
determines  the  political  situation. 

Still  quite  young,  this  man,  whether  "  malign "  or 
"  great,"  undoubtedly  marked  out  both  by  intellect 
and  character  for  an  extraordinary  career,  had  arrived 
by  sheer  dint  of  ability  and  hard  work  at  a  position  of 
some  importance.  Uniting  by  a  happy  crossing  of 
races  the  patience,  plodding  industry,  analytical  temper, 
and  a  gift  of  marshalling  facts  and  figures  effectively,  in 
a  word  "  the  scientific  mind  "  of  the  German,  with  the 


WITTE'S  REGIME  137 

astuteness,  keenness,  gift  of  rapid  assimilation,  versa- 
tility— consisting  in  alternative  phases  of  truckling  pru- 
dence and  brutal  frankness — of  the  Armenian,  he  had 
early  found  means  of  proving  his  singular  capabilities 
as  a  financial  administrator  by  the  skilful  balance-sheets 
he  drew  up  in  his  modest  post  of  Actuary  to  the  Railways 
of  the  South  West.  His  promotion  was  rapid.  At  a  time 
when  the  newly  built  railways  of  the  country  were 
going  through  a  period  of  painful  depression,  he  was 
practically  the  only  man  who  could  "  organise  com- 
binations "  which  saved  them  from  yet  worse  disasters, 
Vychnegradski,  Minister  of  Finance,  invited  him  to  take 
the  direction  of  the  Railway  Department.  And  when, 
before  the  growing  exigencies  of  the  reactionary  Oli- 
garchy, by  which  Alexander  III.  was  launched  upon  distant 
and  costly  enterprises  in  order  to  get  a  free  hand  in 
Russia,  this  Minister  assured  the  Tsar  it  was  impossible 
to  make  any  further  increase  in  the  burdens  that 
weighed  upon  the  population,  Witte  alone  was  found 
ready,  with  obsequious  courage,  to  submit  to  the 
Sovereign  a  series  of  projects  that  belied  this  view.  He 
pledged  himself  to  develop  the  State  revenues  to  a  large 
extent,  in  spite  of  the  grave  condition  of  affairs  ;  and 
the  Tsar,  who  did  not  understand  one  word  of  the 
whole  scheme,  but  who  welcomed  the  promise  that  the 
trans-Siberian  Railroad  should  be  built,  entrusted  the 
tarvejiu  with  the  duty  of  purging  the  financial  constitu- 
tion of  Tsarism — on  the  very  morrow  of  the  terrible 
famines  of  1891.  Did  Witte  mistake  his  orders?  He 
set  to  work  at  the  same  time  to  reorganise  the 
economic  condition  of  the  people,  a  thing  he  had  never 
been  asked  to  do,  and  which  ten  years  later  was  to 
culminate  in  a  catastrophe. 


138  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 


The  Economic  Upheaval. 

Dominated  by  a  perfect  mania  for  capitalisation — of 
which  he  repented  later,  when  it  was  too  late — Witte's 
one  panacea  was  the  accumulation  of  enormous  reserves. 
At  the  same  time  his  ambition  led  him  from  the  very 
first  to  foresee  the  possibility  of  becoming  the  sole 
master  of  Russia — at  least  in  all  that  concerned  its 
economic  and  external  policy — by  means  of  these  accu- 
mulated sums,  which  he  had  been  instructed  to  provide 
in  a  general  way.  His  whole  financial  system,  then,  is 
summed  up  in  one  single  operation  repeated  over  and 
over  again — the  extortion  of  important  amounts  from 
one  source  or  another,  the  employment  of  these  amounts 
to  increase  the  credit  of  the  country,  and  his  own  personal 
prestige ;  then  the  utilising  of  this  increase  to  procure 
still  more  important  amounts.  The  operation  is  of  the 
simplest,  and  his  methods  of  carrying  it  out  were  simpler 
still.  But  the  political  effects  have  proved  extremely 
complex,  inasmuch  as,  of  the  four  or  five  means 
which  civilised  States  employ  to  raise  money,  Russia, 
when  Witte  first  came  to  the  front,  was  really  familiar 
with  only  one — a  more  and  more  onerous  taxation,  with- 
out any  compensating  benefits  to  the  public  weal.  The 
prodigious  revolution  Witte  invited  in  the  social 
life  of  the  Empire  is  merely  the  direct  consequence  of 
the  necessity  he  found  himself  under  of  appealing  to 
new  sources  of  fiscal  revenue,  preferably  those  acting 
automatically,  which  he  had  to  create  almost  entirely 
before  he  could  turn  them  to  advantage.  So,  while 
assuring  the  equilibrium,  to  all  appearance  more  and 
more  stable,  of  budgets  which  swelled  with  dizzy 
rapidity,   he    was  bound,  to  satisfy  this    first    essential 


WITTE'S  REGIME  139 

duty,  to  have  recourse  to  certain  fresh  factors  in  the 
problem.  These  factors,  secondary  in  the  eyes  of  Tsar 
and  Oligarchy,  but  which  soon  became  the  all-important 
one  in  the  life  of  the  State,  are  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  the  national  credit  and  the  industrial  energy  of  the 
people,  together  with  their  necessary  pre-conditions, 
economic  prestige  in  other  countries,  monetary  stability, 
support  of  industry  by  protection  and  bounties,  improved 
means  of  communication,  and,  lastly,  commercial  and 
colonial  expansion.  All  this  was  secured  by  VVitte's 
regime.  Nevertheless,  it  has  all  remained  purely  factitious, 
because  the  impulse  given  had  nothing  corresponding  to 
it  in  the  way  of  natural  economic  effect,  only  a  scries  of 
governmental  measures — contrived  with  wonderful  as- 
tuteness to  obtain  by  side-issues  the  enormous  sums  of 
money  the  Tsar  and  his  entourage  required. 

Witte,  a  bureaucrat  by  force  of  circumstances,  an 
autocrat  by  predilection,  could  do  nothing  less  than  set 
budgetary  considerations  above  all  others.  His  capi- 
talist instinct  and  his  remarkable  talents  for  industrial 
organisation  have  led  him,  it  is  true,  to  create,  simul- 
taneously with  manufactures  previously  non-existent 
and  railways  hitherto  of  secondary  importance,  the 
social  development  destined  to  assimilate  the  middle 
classes  and  the  Russian  proletariat  to  the  corresponding 
classes  in  civilised  countries.  But  this  was  done  with 
no  wish  to  modify  the  social  structure  of  the  Nation. 
The  real  object  was  always  the  same,  to  create  an 
economic  impetus  by  means  of  this  modification  that 
should  render  the  people  capable  of  bearing  heavier 
fiscal  burdens.  Hence  the  artificial  character  of  all  that 
the  Witte  regime  has  done  to  develop  the  wealth— or, 
rather,  the  taxation— of  Russia.  Hence,  again,  the  in- 
fluence, as    malign    in  its  effects   for  Tsardom    as   the 


HO  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

administrative  oppression  of  the  bureaucratic  Oligarchy 
itself,  which  the  pretentious  policy  followed  by  Witte 
has  exercised  on  the  progress  of  revolutionary  ideas. 
It  is  indispensable,  in  the  first  place,  to  analyse  this 
influence  from  the  standpoint  of  governmental  action. 
Later  on  we  shall  see  the  consequences  of  its  rebound 
as  affecting-  the  mental  attitude  of  the  masses. 


The  Screw — Always  the  Screw. 

Budget  considerations  now  dominated  the  situation. 
What  was  the  state  of  things  before  Witte  ?  By  what 
direct  means  did  he  modify  the  same  up  to  the  date  of 
his  retirement  in  July,  1903? 

Under  the  financial  administration  of  Bunge  the  an- 
nual deficits  had  become  very  alarming  after  the  con- 
clusion of  the  Russo-Turkish  War.  The  annual  increase 
of  receipts,  on  the  contrary,  was  only  twenty-five  million 
roubles.  Under  his  successor,  Vychnegradski  (1887- 
1892),  this  increase  reached  thirty-five  millions;  under 
Witte,  ninety-five  millions  !  But  the  corresponding  rise 
of  expenditure  at  once  reveals  the  essential  secret  of  the 
"  wealth  "  of  the  Russian  Government.  Under  Bunge 
the  increase  was  seventeen  millions  a  year  ;  under  Vych- 
negradski only  four,  and  under  Witte  twenty-five.  That 
is  to  say,  under  the  first-named,  there  was  an  "  economy  " 
of  eight  millions,  an  augmentation  of  reserves  to  that 
amount,  under  the  second  of  thirty-one,  under  W^itte  of 
seventy  !  Vychnegradski,  instead  of  employing  his  sur- 
pluses to  better  the  conditions  of  the  people,  began  by 
writing  off"  the  deficits,  in  which  he  acted  rightly ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  he  amassed  large  reserves  of  gold,  in 
view  of  the  monetary  reform  necessary  for  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  prestige  of  Tsardom   after  the  lamentable 


WITTE'S  REGIME  141 

depreciation  of  the  rouble  that  had  occurred  since  the 
Turkish  War.  Thus  the  interests  of  the  country  were 
sacrificed  in  favour  of  the  presticjc  of  the  Tsarian 
Government,  the  productive  budgets  (education,  com- 
munication, agriculture)  being  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
Meantime,  the  marvellous  surpluses  of  Government  re- 
ceipts were  flaunted  before  the  eyes  of  international 
capitalism.  Under  Witte  things  remained  the  same ; 
and  if  the  increase  of  expenditure  also  is  very  much 
more  considerable,  this  is  because  a  proportion  of  the 
strikingly  augmented  receipts  had  to  be  used,  if  we  may 
say  so,  in  feeding  the  goose  with  the  golden  eggs  ;  that 
is,  the  hothouse  industry  he  set  going,  and  the  French 
investors  who  kindly  filled  up  the  inconvenient  holes  of 
the  "  extraordinary  budgets,"  subserving  the  special 
interests  of  the  Oligarchy,  whether  military,  police,  or 
merely  peculative.  (At  the  same  time,  this  return  of  a 
portion  of  the  sums  wrung  out  of  the  people's  pockets 
to  productive  channels,  is  the  one  and  only  ray  of  light 
in  the  gloomy  picture  to  be  unfolded). 

How  have  these  reccii)ts,  more  surprising  and  more 
gratifying  every  year,  been  secured?  In  a  civilised 
country,  administered  by  financiers  and  not  by  autocrats 
or  by  bureaucrats,  the  first  task  would  have  been  to 
stimulate  the  intensity  of  the  economic  life  and  above 
all  to  augment  the  power  of  buying  possessed  by  the 
great  bulk  of  the  population,  in  order  subsequently  to 
levy  a  reasonable  percentage  on  the  increased  turnover. 
Perhaps  Witte  originally  proposed  to  act  thus.  But  he 
found  it  an  impossibility,  seeing  that  the  great  bulk  of 
the  population  (ninety  per  cent.)  is  agricultural,  and 
illiterate  into  the  bargain.  To  augment  its  powers  of 
absorption,  it  would  have  been  needful  first  of  all  to 
better  its  economic  situation — a  thing  only  possible  by 


142  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

dint  of  reforms  (education,  freedom  to  move  from  place 
to  place,  reasonable  conditions  of  employment),  not  only 
costly,  but  "  political "  to  such  a  degree  that  they  must 
have  prejudicially  affected  the  Tsarian  autocracy.  Witte 
was,  therefore,  forced  to  begin  at  the  wrong  end. 

Instead  of  successively  accomplishing  the  three  great 
stages  of  progress,  the  completion  of  which  meant  to 
his  prophetic  vision  a  Russia  grown  rich  and  prosperous, 
viz.^  agrarian  reform,  development  of  industry  and 
commerce  (to  satisfy  the  new  wants  created  by  the  first 
among  the  people),  participation  of  the  State  in  the 
profits  of  an  increased  turnover  in  the  form  of  taxes — 
instead  of  this,  he  had  to  follow  the  reverse  course  :  first, 
increase  of  revenue  receipts  by  direct  methods  ;  second, 
evolution  of  an  economic  organism  of  modern  type 
capable  of  securing  the  supply  of  the  new  wants  as  yet 
non-existent ;  third  and  last,  on  the  Greek  Kalends,  the 
creation  of  a  population  fitted  to  absorb  the  products  of 
its  own  industry !  Under  these  conditions  of  reversal, 
Witte  has  done  all  that  it  was  humanly  possible  for  him 
to  do ;  but  he  has  succeeded  merely  by  cheating  the 
whole  world  as  to  the  internal  mechanism  of  this  fantastic 
project. 

The  simple  statement  of  what  this  mechanism  is 
suffices  to  expose  the  fallacy  of  the  "  development  of 
Russian  wealth,"  on  which  the  economic  prestige  of  the 
Tsar  is  based.  It  may  be  that  the  pitiful  ignorance 
prevailing  in  the  Western  world,  and  notably  in  France, 
of  the  Russian  language  and  national  life,  has  really  led 
the  public  to  put  faith  in  this  prestige.  But  it  is  at  least 
equally  likely  that  the  best  informed  among  the  French 
people  have  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fraud  from  political 
motives.  It  is,  in  fact,  very  remarkable  how  the 
Vychnegradski     era      (first     budget     surpluses,    gold 


WITTE'S  REGIME  143 

reserves)  coincides  with  curious  exactness  with  the 
preliminary  stage  of  the  Franco-Russian  AHiance. 
The  truth  is  that  this  alliance  has  drawn  closer  and 
closer  in  direct  ratio  as  the  economic  prestige  of 
Tsardom  called  with  greater  urgency  for  external 
support.  Moreover  the  express  declarations  of 
Vychnegradski  and  Witte  to  intimates,  leave  no 
doubt  about  the  very  clear  consciousness  possessed 
by  the  Russian  Government  that  this  international 
connection  was  largely  a  matter  of  bargaining  and 
mutual  convenience.  "  We  sell  our  military  prestige 
for  the  economic  prestige  we  lack,"  said  Vychnegradski, 
but  he  forgot  to  add  that  this  military  prestige  could 
only  be  maintained  by  means  of  the  economic  prestige 
so  much  desired.  The  one-sided  bargain  once  struck — 
and  ten  times  over  renewed — Witte  had  the  effrontery 
not  even  to  employ  the  ten  milliards  he  had  taj^ped  out 
of  French  savings  in  securing  a  genuine  development 
of  Russian  wealth  instead  of  the  fictitious  one  originally 
assumed.  The  fact  is,  as  we  shall  find,  that  he  was 
henceforth  compelled,  in  order  to  preserve  his  own 
personal  authority,  to  sacrifice  almost  all  the  profits  of 
his  international  marauding  to  the  hungry  maw  of  the 
Oligarchy.  The  pretence  held  good,  and  holds  good 
still.  It  consisted  in  building  up  a  brilliant  and 
xva^osmg  facade  of  financial  prosperity  to  catch  the  eye. 
This  is  effected  by  continually  repeated  a{)plications  of 
the  screw — alwaj-s  the  screw  of  taxation  ;  and  has 
successively  brought  in  its  train  not  the  development 
but  the  arrest  of  economic  life,  impoverishment  in  lieu 
of  enrichment,  wretchedness  instead  of  well-being,  as 
also — through  the  corresponding  reduction  of  productive 
expenditure  (notably  on  education  and  hygiene) — the 
most  appalling  physiological  and  psychical  decrepitude 


144  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

amongst  the  people.  This  is  a  succinct  analysis  of  the 
decadence  concealed  behind  the  imposing  screen  of  the 
Witte  regime.  The  general  movement  of  the  financial 
situation  under  Vychnegradski's  and  Witte's  adminis- 
trations— the  second  being  in  principle  (check  of 
expenditure,  forced  increase  of  receipts)  merely  an 
amplification  of  the  first — may  be  shown  in  a  shape 
as  startling  as  it  is  simple. 

Three  imposts  have  been  abolished  during  this  period  : 
the  peasant's  poll-tax  (54  million  roubles) — the  rouble  is 
about  2s. — on  the  eve  of  Vychnegradski's  taking  office  ; 
a  portion  of  the  annual  instalments  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  lands  paid  by  the  peasants  to  the  Govern- 
ment since  the  abolition  of  serfdom  (12  millions);  the 
tax  on  passports  (4  millions)  in  1898.  Result,  a  loss  ot 
70  millions.  This  has  been  made  good  by  fresh  imposts, 
as  follows :  Transformation  of  the  poll-tax  into  annual 
payments  in  redemption  (20  millions) ;  tax  on  the 
interest  payable  on  transferable  securities,  in  1885  ;  tax 
on  rents,  1894;  patents,  1898.  The  aggregate  receipts 
from  these  sources  amount  to  only  90  millions.  The 
other  direct  taxes  have  only  yielded,  as  a  result  of  the 
economic  development  of  the  people,  the  pitiful  increase 
of  10  millions.  All  this  proves  that  the  direct  imposts 
(total  increase  of  30  millions,  after  deducting  the  70 
millions  of  taxes  given  up)  have  done  absolutely  nothing 
to  give  the  extraordinary  impetus  to  the  State  revenues 
foreshadowed  in  the  fantastic  dreams  of  finance 
reformers. 

The  results  seem  less  unsatisfactory  as  regards  the 
profits  of  State  enterprises.  In  Russia  the  Government 
is  not  only  industrial  and  commercial,  as  in  civilised 
countries ;  it  is  above  all  agricultural.  Accordingly, 
revenues  from  farming  out  the  Crown  lands  and  profits 


WITTE'S  REGIME  145 

from  the  forests  have  ahvays  been  considerable.  The 
increase  under  these  heads  (same  years,  1887  to  1902) 
amounted  to  75  millions.  At  first  si^^ht  this  appears 
to  be  a  highly  satisfactory  development,  due  to  increase 
of  population  and  material  advance  of  the  peasantry. 
But,  in  plain  words,  the  major  part  of  this  "  progress  " 
only  implies  the  imposition  of  fresh  taxes.  The  truth 
is,  the  Government  has  constantly  raised  the  charges 
for  taking  up  land,  and  arbitrarily  exacted  higher  and 
higher  prices  for  wood  from  the  forests  sold  to  the 
peasants — a  remarkably  simple  way  of  increasing 
revenue,  if  we  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  renting  of 
these  lands  and  the  purchase  of  this  wood  arc  an  absolute 
necessity  for  the  peasantry,  where  no  possible  com- 
petition exists  of  which  they;  can  avail  themselves.  It 
is  a  virtual  monopoly  of  land  and  wood  which  the 
State  exercises.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  direct  tax,  thinly 
disguised.  Of  the  75  millions  increase  of  receipts, 
nearly  a  half  accrues  from  this  source  alone ! 

It  is  the  same  with  the  State  industries,  the  real 
monopolies.  These  have  yielded  an  increase  of  receipts 
of  60  millions — half  from  posts  and  telegraphs,  hah 
from  brandy.  Now  it  is  true  with  regard  to  the  first  ot 
these  that  it  has  been  found  practically  impossible  to 
turn  the  screw  tighter,  but  the  fact  remains  that  postal 
charges  in  Russia  have  come  to  be  so  exorbitant  that, 
in  view  of  the  entire  lack  of  ready  money  among  the 
mass  of  the  population,  they  are  quite  prohibitive  for  the 
poor,  and  constitute  a  heavy  tax  upon  everybody  else. 
The  unreasonably  high  profits  from  posts  and  tele- 
graphs, so  far  as  these  items  can  be  got  at  separately 
in  a  budget  of  infinite  complexity,  come  to  nearly 
30  millions  out  of  a  gross  receipt  of  45  millions,  that 
is,  to  two-thirds*of  the  total — showing  plainly  that  this 

L 


146  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

service,  pre-eminently  a  civilising  agency  in  modern 
communities,  is  in  Russia  merely  an  engine  for  extract- 
ing from  the  public  a  maximum  of  money — a  tax  on  the 
interchange  of  ideas.  As  to  the  monopoly  of  spirituous 
liquors,  which  has  become  a  fiscal  instrument  of  a  re- 
voltingly  immoral  nature,  its  "  brilliant "  results  are  not 
due  to  any  development  of  purchasing  power,  but  on  the 
one  hand  to  the  largely  enhanced  prices  of  strong  drink, 
associated  on  the  other  with  a  positive  pressure  exercised 
by  Government  agency  on  the  masses  to  make  them 
indulge  in  alcoholic  excess.  The  peasant,  as  will  be 
shown  further  on,  spends  on  an  average  at  least  7  per 
cent,  of  his  gross  income  on  this  poison,  while  of  this 
7  per  cent.  6J  is  the  share  of  the  State,  the  actual  value 
of  the  commodity  representing  only  |  per  cent. 
Here,  no  less  than  in  the  post-office  monopoly,  is  surely 
a  terrible,  an  immoral  impost ! 

Coming  to  the  railways,  a  third  source  of  revenue,  the 
case  is  somewhat  different ;  though  here  again  the 
boasted  "  progress  "  consists  partly  in  a  disguised  impost 
in  the  shape  of  interest  on  the  enormous  loans  contracted 
for  the  purchase  of  certain  systems  from  the  companies 
originally  owning  them,  and  for  the  construction  of 
others.  The  railway  budget  has  been  lightened  to 
the  amount  of  50  millions  by  the  nationalisation  of 
the  lines,  doing  away  as  it  did  with  disbursements  by 
way  of  guarantees ;  but  a  much  heavier  sum  has  been 
added  to  the  burden  of  external  indebtedness.  A  truly 
magnificent  piece  of  progress  !  Meantime  the  increase 
of  receipts  rises  to  170  millions,  which  undoubtedly 
signifies  an  important  development  of  traffic.  Unfor- 
fortunately  this  fine  prospect  has  all  been  changed 
since  1900.  Receipts  are  falling  steadily — so  much 
so  that  bonuses   have   altered  into  deficits   of  a  more 


WITTE'S  REGIME  147 

and  more  alarming  character,  reaching  for  1903 — the 
war  year  1904  must  be  taken  as  exceptional — the 
stupendous  figure  of  240  millions,  Z.^'.,  about  ^^24,000,000. 
This  is  the  result,  by  official  admission,  of  the  construc- 
tion of  new  and  utterly  unproductive  lines,  called  for  by 
no  real  requirements  of  the  population,  but  undertaken 
for  mistaken  political  or  fiscal  considerations.  Be  this 
as  it  may  (and  we  shall  presently  see  all  the  importance 
of  the  phenomenon),  it  is  obviously  and  beyond  question 
the  proof  of  stagnation,  if  not  of  retrogression,  in  the 
economic  life  of  the  nation.  The  State  artificially  nurses 
the  vast  railway  industry  rendered  useless  b}'  the  general 
impoverishment — a  symptom  all  the  more  serious  because 
it  had  been  largely  extended  on  purpose  to  .  .  .  enrich  the 
productive  classes.  As  a  matter  of  plain  fact,  then,  the 
increase  of  receipts  from  the  railways  is  a  figment,  and 
their  management  actually  amounts  to  a  fresh  tax. 

What  more  than  anything  else  has  given  the  Vychne- 
gradski-Witte  epoch  its  enormous  receipts  is  indirect 
taxes  and  customs.  The  latter  have  brought  in  an 
increase  of  receipts  of  100  millions,  the  former  as  much 
as  200  ;  thus  we  have,  at  the  end  of  the  financial  era 
in  question,  ;{J^30,ooo,ooo  annually  extorted  from  the 
wretchedness  of  a  famine-stricken  people.  How,  in 
brief,  has  this  vaunted  "  financial  progress  "  been  accom- 
plished ?  The  same  receipts  which,  under  Vychncgradski, 
showed  an  annual  increase  of  19  millions,  have  attained 
a  further  augmentation  of  32  millions  annually  under 
Witte !  Under  the  first-named,  direct  taxes  remained 
stationary,  while  indirect  increased  12,  and  customs 
8  millions  yearly ;  under  Witte,  direct  taxes  have 
increased  5  millions  a  year,  indirect  14,  customs  13! 
Moreover,  to  this  must  be  added  the  new  taxes  levied 
of  every  sort  and  kind.     The  final  result  stands  thus  : 

L  2 


148  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

between  the  rise  and  fall  of  Witte,  the  total  increment 
of  receipts  amounts  to  more  than  450  millions  (over 
;^45, 000,000),  or  an  average  of  exactly  45  millions  per 
annum.  Of  this  total,  an  average  of  10  millions  was 
furnished  by  the  agricultural  operations  of  the  State,  of 
which  5  millions  at  least  must  be  counted  equivalent 
to  an  impost.  All  the  rest,  viz.,  40  millions  annually, 
represents  increase  of  taxation.  Such  is  the  final 
analysis  of  the  results  of  the  administrative  genius  of 
that  great  economist,  Witte. 

Taxes  and  Misery. 

This  "  brilliant "  development  of  the  wealth — not  of 
Russia,  but  of  Tsardom — is  the  more  wonderful,  inas- 
much as  at  the  moment  when  Witte  took  up  the  reins 
his  predecessor  had  just  resigned  office,  in  consequence 
of  his  temerity  in  sending  in  a  report,  in  which  he  warned 
the  Tsar  "  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  make  any 
further  increase  in  the  burdens  of  the  population."  He 
had,  in  fact,  realised  that  the  result  of  his  efforts  had 
been  ....  the  complete  arrest  of  advance  in  the  con- 
sumption of  articles  subject  to  indirect  taxation.  The 
new  duties  on  tobacco,  spirits,  petroleum,  matches, 
stamps,  manufactures,  had  led  to  a  sudden  increase  of 
receipts  to  the  amount  of  no  million  roubles.  But  the 
tobacco  industry  (57,000  kilos,  in  1886)  was  steadily 
declining  (40,000  in  1892).  So  too  the  sale  of  alcohol 
(5  J  million  hectolitres  in  1886,  2\  millions  in  1892)  ; 
while  later  again,  under  the  system  of  monopoly  of 
spirits,  the  consumption  has  still  further  diminished,  till 
it  is  now  only  2  litres  per  head  per  annum.  The  imports 
of  coffee  for  the  same  seven  years  have  declined  from 
8  million  kilos,  to  6.     As  for  tea,  the  Russians'  favourite 


WITTE'S  REGIME  149 

beverage,  still,  however,  regarded  as  a  luxury,  though 
the  positive  total  imported  was  greater,  the  consumption 
per  head  was  less,  the  population  having  increased  10 
per  cent,  the  importation  of  tea  only  3  per  cent.  On 
the  top  of  it  all  came  the  great  famine  of  1892  .  .  . 

But  Witte  ruthlessly  ignored  his  predecessor's  pes- 
simism. He  began  by  still  further  augmenting  the 
existing  duties.  The  result  was  disappointing,  it  is  true. 
But  then  the  Minister  set  about  feeding  the  goose  of  the 
golden  eggs,  the  tax-payer,  to  wit,  with  a  sumptuous  diet 
of  "  intensification  of  the  industrial  and  commercial  life." 
The  first  lacked  means  of  production  ;  the  second,  means 
of  communication  ;  and  Russia  was  incapable  of  creating 
either.  Then  the  French  Alliance  was  called  in  to  the 
rescue.  The  State  borrowed  little  by  little  some  ten 
milliards,  private  enterprise  three  or  four  more.  The 
employment  of  these  immense  sums,  which  cost  the 
Russian  tax-payers — who  have,  as  we  shall  see  [presently, 
to  meet  even  the  interest  on  the  industrial  capital — 
more  than  ^20,000,000  yearly,  was,  according  to  Witte, 
exclusively  "productive."  Indeed  it  proved  so,  as  a 
matter  of  fact :  for  some  five  years  numberless  factories 
were  built,  and  railways  constructed  of  an  enormous 
aggregate  mileage.  Millions  of  workmen  realised  con- 
siderable advantages  so  long  as  this  feverish  activity 
lasted.  Then  to  crown  all,  thanks  to  a  happy  chance 
— which,  alas  !  was  not  repeated  subsequently — the 
harvests  were  good. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  i)urchasing  power  of 
the  masses  developed,  and  the  yield  of  the  indirect  taxes 
increased.  The  Customs  receipts  simultaneously  showed 
a  remarkable  accretion,  increasing  by  over  ;{^4,400,ooo  per 
annum.  Yet  at  the  very  same  time  the  Russian  people 
began  to  scale  the  Calvary  of  general   impoverishment. 


I50  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

The  well-being  of  the  masses  had  been  augmented,  not 
by  the  more  energetic  exploitation  of  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  but  by  the  influx  of  capital  sums  expended  on 
the  first  installation  of  the  apparatus  needed  for  such 
exploiting.  The  people  was,  so  to  speak,  eating  up  this 
capital  instead  of  the  interest  it  was  intended  to  yield. 
Accordingly,  so  soon  as  the  "  primary  installation  "  of 
this  modern  apparatus  was  complete,  the  smiling  picture 
assumed  more  and  more  sombre  colours.  It  now  became 
a  question  not  merely  of  creating,  but  above  all  of  con- 
suming, absorbing  the  new  articles  produced  by  the  new 
plant ;  in  a  word,  outlets  had  to  be  found,  to  feed  the 
"  means  of  production  and  of  communication "  where- 
with Witte  had  succeeded  in  endowing  the  country 
by  means  of  the  French  gold.  As  these  outlets,  in  view 
of  the  vast  industrial  developments  of  Western  Europe, 
were  obviously  non-existent  abroad,  they  must  be 
provided  within  the  confines  of  Russia.  Exorbitant 
customs  duties  were  introduced  in  order  to  exclude 
foreign  products  from  the  home  market.  But  nothing 
could  arrest  the  impending  disaster.  Not  even  when 
thus  protected  could  the  new,  artificially-fostered  indus- 
try survive.  Internal  market  there  was  none  after  the 
fat  years  of  the  "  primary  installation  "  ;  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  masses  had  fallen  back  again  to  a  pitiful 
minimum. 

Except  the  State — which  pays  twice  over  with  the 
tax-payers'  money — there  was  nobody  to  absorb,  for 
instance,  the  products  of  the  metal  industries ;  the 
instant  Government  orders  fell  off,  these  industries  were 
on  the  road  to  ruin.  The  State  which  had  brought 
them  into  existence,  which  had  needed  them  especially 
to  carry  out  its  enterprises  in  railway  construction  and 
to  provide  the  army  with  modern  weapons,  found  itself 


WITTE'S  REGIME  151 

compelled  still  further  to  swell  its  budgets,  to  spend  still 
more  of  the  tax-payers'  money  on  useless  objects — abso- 
lutely unremunerative  lines  of  railway,  unnecessary  plant 
of  all  kinds,  solely  in  the  hope  of  retarding  a  terrible 
economic  catastrophe.  It  was  again  the  peasant,  the 
chief  tax-payer,  from  whom  money  was  wrung,  the 
money  the  metal  industries  were  supposed  to  "  make  "  ! 

Nor  is  this  capital  instance  in  any  way  exceptional. 
In  all  other  industries  the  course  of  events  has  been 
practically  the  same, — only  more  rapid,  and  more 
disastrous,  in  those  which  the  State  cannot  prop  up  by 
means  of  direct  commissions. 

What  are  the  reasons  of  this  economic  crisis,  which 
has  contributed  more  than  anything  else  to  precipitate 
Revolution  ?     They  are  extremely  complex. 

Decay  of  Industry. 

To  begin  with,  it  must  be  stated  that  the  extremely 
low  level  of  demand  for  commodities  on  the  part  of  the 
Russian  population,  which  leaves  industry  to  work,  so  to 
speak,  in  a  vacuum,  is  connected  with  the  wretched 
conditions  under  which  the  mass  of  the  people,  the 
agriculturists,  live.  Before  trying  to  account  for  this 
excessive  poverty,  let  us  accept  it  as  a  fact,  so  as  fully 
to  realise  the  catastrophe  involved  in  the  system 
of  "  intensification  of  the  industrial  and  commercial 
life"  pursued  by  Witte.  It  is  in  reality — irony  of 
fate  which  the  great  economist  had  not  foreseen — the 
manufacturing  industries  themselves  which  have  yet 
further  diminished  the  purchasing  power  of  the  people, 
and  closed  up  its  sole  inlet  by  excessive  protection,  under 
the  shadow  of  which  it  has  been  fostered.  A  protective 
system   carried   to   the  extremest   limits   was  to  enable 


152  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Russian  industry  to  keep  up  the  prices  of  its  products  at 
a  level  sufificiently  high  to  cover  the  enormous  sums 
payable  as  interest  on  the  capital  expended  in  installa- 
tion and  cost  of  production.  This  has  resulted  in 
a  very  substantial  rise  in  prices  of  all  manufactured 
articles.  It  is  impossible  to  compare  these  increased 
prices  with  those  that  obtain  in  France,  where  they 
are  still  higher.  But  in  France  the  average  gross  income 
per  head  is  750  francs,  and  in  Russia  ...  50 !  Com- 
pared, however,  with  prices  in  Germany,  where  the 
income  per  head  is  at  least  five  times  greater  than  in 
Russia,  the  prices  of  manufactured  articles  under  the 
Witte  regime  have  increased  on  the  most  extraordinary 
scale,  e.g-.Jor  petroleum  150  p.c,  steel  300  p.c,  agricultural 
implements  160  p.c,  cotton  goods  357  p.c,  cloth 
225  p.c,  coal  200  p.c,  tea  304  p.c,  tobacco  687  p.c, 
paper  630  p.c,  handicapping  the  Russian  consumer  in  a 
ratio  varying  between  two  to  one  and  seven  to  one ! 

And  it  is  amazing  to  see  that  this  appreciation  of 
prices  has  benefited  Russian  industry  to  a  far  less 
degree  than  it  has  the  Imperial  Exchequer.  Imports 
from  abroad,  in  fact,  and  consequently  Customs  receipts, 
have  steadily  augmented,  while  nativ-e  Russian  pro- 
duction, on  the  contrary,  has  diminished.  Thus  import 
dues  really  constitute  a  special  duty  intended  to  cover 
the  eventual  losses  of  manufactures,  but  resulting  as  a 
matter  of  fact  in  a  levying  of  money  by  the  State  direct 
from  the  public,  without  this  money  passing  through  the 
manufacturers'  hands  at  all.  To  give  a  typical  instance 
from  the  textile  industry.  The  import  duties  on  manu- 
factured cotton  (muslins)  are  at  the  rate  of  60  roubles 
(£6)  per  ICXD  kilos.  Now  100  kilos,  of  cotton  cost  in 
Russia,  on  the  average,  210  roubles  ;  the  same  quantity 
is  worth  in   England   something  less  than   150  roubles  ; 


WITTE'S  REGIME  153 

cost  of  carriage  included,  this  is  the  rate  at  which 
the  goods  would  sell  in  Russia  but  for  the  protectionist 
tariff. 

The  Russian  buyer  therefore  pays  60  roubles  per 
100  kilos,  excess.  The  Russian  consumption  exceeding 
200,000  tons,  the  buyers'  loss  comes  to  125  million 
roubles  (i^  12,500,000)  per  annum,  at  the  lowest  estimate. 
It  forms,  in  fact,  a  real  tax  upon  clothing  which  does 
not  appear  in  any  budget,  the  true  importance  of  which 
can  be  gauged  only  by  taking  into  account  the  ludi- 
crously insignificant  figure  of  the  Russian  peasant's 
average  income.  This  tax,  in  Witte's  theory,  is  paid 
"  pending  the  cheapening  of  goods  which  will  follow 
from  the  progress  of  industrial  enterprise."  Unfortu- 
nately industrial  enterprise  exhibits  only  a  retrograde 
development,  and  these  good  times  never  come.  Again, 
if  the  textile  industry — to  keep  to  the  same  specific 
instance  for  the  sake  of  clearness — profited  by  these  125 
million  roubles  a  year,  consolation  might  be  found  in 
regarding  it  as  a  "  patriotic  sacrifice."  But  even  this 
is  denied  us  !  Well-nigh  half  falls  directly  into  the 
pocket  of  the  Exchequer  in  the  shape  of  import  duties, 
for  importation  continues  despite  all  obstacles  and 
Customs' barriers.  And  why? — because  the  quality  of 
Russian  manufactures  is  lamentably  inferior.  Nor  is 
the  other  moiety  of  any  but  the  smallest  benefit  to  the 
manufacturers  and  the  capitalists  at  their  back,  because 
the  exorbitant  cost  of  production  eats  up  everything. 
Very  dear,  and  very  bad,  is  the  motto  of  Russian 
manufactures. 

Needless  to  observe  that  it  is  Protection  itself  which 
has  contributed  to  this  result.  So  long  as,  thanks  to  it, 
raw  material  remains  dear,  cost  of  manufacture  cannot 
diminish.     Again,  on  another  side,  goods  cannot  become 


154  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

less  costly  so  long  as  industry,  in  its  secret  springs, 
depends  upon  an  artificial  State  organisation  in  the 
midst  of  a  social  life  to  which  it  is  repugnant.  The 
artisan  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist.  The  factory  hand  is 
still,  and  is  conscious  of  being,  an  agricultural  labourer 
spoiled.  As  a  rule  he  works  in  a  factory  only  while  on 
the  look-out  for  an  opportunity  of  getting  back  to  the 
land.  He  never  learns  his  work  because  he  has  no  inten- 
tion of  sticking  to  it.  On  all  sides  vast  crowds  of  work- 
men leave  the  industrial  centres  in  spring  to  work  in 
the  fields.  The  factories  replace  them  by  half-trained 
hands,  who,  if  they  learn  their  work,  will  probably 
follow  their  predecessors'  example  next  year.  Every 
good  harvest  there  comes  a  scarcity  of  operatives,  and 
wages  go  up  at  an  impossible  ratio.  It  has  happened 
before  now  that  important  mills  have  had  to  close  down 
for  whole  summers.  The  results  are  disastrous.  These 
good  agricultural  years  increase  the  purchasing  powers 
of  the  peasantry,  while  it  is  precisely  in  these  same 
years  that  national  industry  is  disorganised,  so  that 
imports  from  abroad  take  the  place  of  home  products, 
and  the  rise  in  sale  prices  benefits,  by  way  of  Customs 
duties,  the  Exchequer  and  not  the  manufacturers  !  To 
these  data  in  the  national  psychology,  and  the 
consquent  inexperience  of  the  labourers  resulting  from 
it,  must  be  added  the  economic  ignorance  of  the  manu- 
facturers themselves,  and  lastly  the  utter  lack  of  per- 
sonal initiative  deriving  on  the  one  hand  from  the 
Russian  type  of  mind,  and  on  the  other  from  continual 
harassing  interference  of  the  State,  which  regards  indus- 
trial enterprise  from  first  to  last  as  the  goose  that  lays 
golden  eggs  for  its  peculiar  benefit. 

The  aggregate  of  these  conditions,  which  Witte  could 
not  or  would  not  foresee,  was  bound  to  result  finally  in 


WITTE'S  REGIME  155 

a  state  of  things  where,  despite  the  continual  rise  in  all 
prices,  the  manufacturing  industries  could  not  any 
longer  cover  the  expenses  of  production.  The  best 
markets,  those  ready  to  pay  a  good  price  to  get  a  good 
article,  were  recaptured  by  foreign  competitors  who 
turned  out  better  stuff,  while  the  popular  outlets,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  blocked  as  a  result  of  the  general 
impoverishment  brought  about  by  the  necessity  under 
which  Witte  found  himself  of  extorting  more  and  more 
formidable  amounts  from  the  people  for  his  vast  political 
enterprises.  The  catastrophe,  from  which  Russia  has 
not  yet  recovered,  was  of  startling  dimensions.  Bank- 
ruptcies, liquidations,  suspensions  of  payment,  were 
counted  by  thousands.  Of  the  two  and  a  half  milliards 
of  francs  furnished  by  France,  three-fourths  have  melted 
into  thin  air.  Of  8cxd  millions  supplied  by  Belgium, 
half  a  milliard  has  vanished.  More  than  200,0CX) 
artisans  have  swelled  the  ranks  of  the  out-of-work 
proletariat,  while  thousands  of  Russian  capitalists  have 
been  completely  ruined.  At  the  same  time — and  this 
was  the  principal  misfortune  to  the  State — the  Railway 
industry,  the  auxiliary  of  all  the  rest,  became  partly 
unproductive  and  threw  fresh  burdens  on  the  budget. 
Meantime  the  unhappy  people,  groaning  beneath  their 
burden  of  taxation,  economised  on  the  most  absolute 
necessaries  of  existence  in  order  to  supply  the  funds 
required  for  the  preservation  of  the  imposing  fagade  of 
Tsardom  to  the  outside  world. 

Monetary  Reforms. 

For  this  end  Wittc  undertook  the  most  energetic 
measures.  But  he  was  enabled  to  do  so  only  by  the 
ignoring  during  all  these  years  of  financial  tricks  and 
turns,  of  the  present  needs  and  the  future  of  the  vast 


156  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

majority  of  the  population,  the  120,000,000  agriculturists 
who  really  sum  up  the  life  of  the  Russian  Nation.  The 
best  conceived  of  these  measures  was  the  introduction  of 
the  gold  standard,  designed  to  establish  a  fixed  rate  of 
exchange  between  the  rouble  and  foreign  monetary 
units,  in  order  to  give  Russia  the  solidity  of  credit  needed 
to  facilitate  her  commerce  with  other  countries,  and 
above  all  for  purposes  of  borrowing  now  and  always. 

The  gold  standard,  which  Witte  doubtless  looked  upon 
as  also  immediately  productive — if  only  as  a  means  of 
constant  borrowing — is  by  way  of  being  the  framework 
of  the  economic  edifice  whose  pretentious  fagade 
conceals  the  general  impoverishment  of  the  country. 
How  was  this  framework  constructed  ?  Its  foundation 
is  the  reserve  retained  by  the  Treasury  in  order  to  make 
possible  foreign  payments  in  gold  and  to  exchange  bills 
of  credit  in  circulation  directly  against  gold — the  sole 
international  value  that  is  stable.  The  origin  and 
maintenance  of  this  gold  reserve  are  characteristic  of 
the  entire  system.  It  was  originally  amassed,  and  is 
continually  added  to,  solely  and  entirely  by  the  excess 
of  value  of  Russian  exports  over  imports.  The  latter,  in 
fact,  are  paid  for  in  gold  in  the  international  market  by 
Russia — so  much  gold,  that  is  to  say,  leaving  Russia  for 
other  countries.  Russian  exports  on  their  side  are  paid 
for  by  the  foreigners  in  gold  to  the  Russians  ;  in  other 
words,  gold  coming  into  the  country.  Consequently,  if 
the  imports  were  greater  than  the  exports,  the  difference 
would  fall  in  the  shape  of  gold  to  the  foreigner ;  and 
Russia  would  lose  so  much.  If  the  opposite,  the  differ- 
ence accrues  to  Russia,  who  gains  and  keeps  the  corres- 
ponding quantity  of  gold.  Thus  for  Russia  to  have  a 
quantity  of  gold  for  home  dispositions,  which,  if  not 
uninterruptedly  increasing,  shall  at  any  rate  be  stable,  it 


WITTE'S  REGIME  157 

is  indispensable  that  her  exports  shall  exceed  her  imports 
in  aggregate  value. 

Now  it  has  been  shown  that  any  export  of  Russian 
manufactured  articles  abroad  is  impossible  ;  the  one 
and  only  commodity  adapted  for  export  is  agricultural 
produce,  particularly  cereals  of  all  kinds.  It  is  on  the 
export  of  cereals,  then,  that  the  meretricious  structure 
of  the  Tsarist  regime  is  based.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
quantities  exported  are  so  great  that  not  only  has 
Russia  been  able  to  attract  gold — both  as  reserves  in 
the  Treasury  and  in  circulation — to  the  amount  of  over 
;^ 1 20,000,000  representing  the  excess  of  exports  over 
total  imports,  but,  further,  the  legend  is  universally 
accredited  that  a  country  able  to  supply  such  quantities 
of  wheat  over  and  above  her  domestic  needs  must  be 
extremely  rich,  a  "world's  granary."  Yet,  while  gold 
flows  in,  and  Russia  is  partly  feeding  the  industrial 
nations  of  the  rest  of  Europe,  she  herself,  a  purely 
agricultural  country,  is  dying  of  hunger.  Here  is  the 
evidence. 

Agricultural  Dlstress. 

Each  peasant  family — we  quote  official  figures — culti- 
vates on  an  average  seven  times  more  land  than  in 
Western  Europe.  The  unexpected  result  is  that  the 
yield  of  grain  per  hectare  (2^  acres)  is  380  kilos.,  while 
in  other  countries  it  is  1,300.  A  quarter  of  the  total 
harvest  is  used  for  seed  ;  in  civilised  countries  one- 
twelfth.  Hence,  "  good  average "  crops  in  Russia  are 
famine  crops  anywhere  else.  Nay,  more,  in  Western 
Europe  (Germany)  the  land  gives  400  kilos,  of  cereals, 
after  deducting  seed,  per  head  of  population,  besides 
which  50  kilos,  per  head  arc  imported.  In  Russia,  330 
kilos,  is  the  yield,  and  80  kilos,  arc  exported  ;  80  more 


158  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

are  kept  back  for  seed,  so  that  exactly  170  kilos,  remain 
per  head  per  year.  The  Russian  consumes  only  a  trifle 
over  a  third  of  what  the  inhabitant  of  Western  Europe 
eats.     And  meat  is  a  sadly  rare  article. 

These  figures  give  some  idea  of  what  the  economic 
condition  of  the  Russian  people  would  be  if  neither 
taxes  nor  export  of  cereals  existed  ;  it  would  per  se 
involve  chronic  starvation,  under-feeding,  physiological 
and  mental  enfeeblement,  with  its  consequences  of 
epidemics  and  profound  ignorance.  Then  add  the 
aggravation  of  this  state  of  things  owing  to  exportation 
and  the  wonderful  influx  of  gold — which,  unfortunately, 
cannot  be  eaten.  For  twenty  years  past  Russia  has 
been  deprived  of  170  million  tons  of  cereals  of  a  value 
of  i^88o,ooo,ooo — more  than  ;^40,ooo,ooo  per  annum. 
And  the  confidential  reports  of  the  medical  service, 
which  the  author  has  perused  with  horror,  declare 
explictly  and  in  so  many  words  that  "  the  consumption 
of  bread  is  habitually  some  30  per  cent,  below  the  quan- 
tity physiologically  necessary  to  preserve  the  vital  force  of 
an  adult"!  It  must  be  further  added  that  the  diminu- 
tion of  stock  for  the  last  twenty  years  (horses  20  per  cent., 
calves  40  per  cent.,  sheep  71  per  cent.,  pigs  87  per  cent., 
cows  50  per  cent.)  completes  the  picture. 

We  may  well  ask  with  surprise  and  horror  how  it  is 
possible  that  the  peasants  under  such  conditions  are 
willing  to  sell  their  wheat,  to  die  of  hunger?  The 
explanation  is  that  the  State  needs  these  exports,  and 
its  power  is  irresistible.  Government  forces  the  peasants 
to  stint  themselves  of  their  food  by  applying  the  screw 
of  fiscal  pressure.  It  exacts  the  payment  of  innumer- 
able direct  and  indirect  taxes,  and  that  in  ready 
money.  If,  even,  the  Government  would  accept  pay- 
ment in  kind,  the  peasant,  though  none  the  less  deprived 


WITTE'S  REGIME  159 

of  his  staple  necessary,  would  be  able  to  save  something. 
The  State  would  sell  his  wheat,  so  that  at  any  rate  he 
would  escape  the  middleman.  As  things  are,  he  cannot. 
To  get  the  money  to  pay  his  taxes,  the  cultivator, 
ignorant  of  the  state  of  the  markets,  isolated  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  by  lack  of  means  of  communication, 
itself  a  calamity,  has  to  sell  his  crops  to  unscrupulous 
speculators  at  prices  that  are  more  scandalous  the  more 
remote  he  is  from  the  great  commercial  centresj^  There 
is  nothing  else  for  him  to  do,  as  he  must  pay  his  taxes 
— direct  taxes,  to  avoid  seizure  by  the  revenue  authori- 
ties, with  condemnation  to  the  knout  by  the  mayor  of 
his  village  into  the  bargain,  indirect,  because  he  requires 
certain  articles  of  primary  necessity,  one  and  all  subject 
to  heavy  duties. 

It  is  a  vicious  circle — tragic  in  its  consequences  !  The 
peasant's  hunger  maintains  the  standard  of  gold  ;  the 
gold  standard  maintains  the  credit  of  the  Government ; 
Government  credit  is  able  to  borrow  mad  sums  to 
make  specious  exhibitions  of  Russian  might — a  great 
army,  territorial  expansion,  Turkestan,  Manchuria.  And 
these  loans,  by  the  interest  payable  on  them,  as  well  as 
by  the  costly  and  fantastic  schemes  accomplished  by 
their  means,  swell  the  load  of  hunger  that  crushes  the 
unhappy  peasant  yet  further. 

Impoverishment. 

The  full  horror  of  the  "brilliant"  picture  of  Russian 
prosperity  is,  however,  not  manifest  until  we  see  the  use 
made  of  the  pittance  which  the  peasants  scrape  together 
by  starving  their  bellies.  This  is  how  they  spend  it 
under  the  most  fortunate  circumstances. 

A   "  rich "    peasant    family   (seven    persons)    of    the 


i6o  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

government  of  Riazan)  has  400  roubles  (something  over 
;^40)  a  year  to  dispose  of,  one-half  of  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  corn  used  for  domestic  consumption.  Of 
the  other  moiety,  the  household  consumes,  in  round 
numbers,  £2  15s.  od.  on  alcohol,  nearly  £1  on  sugar, 
£2  los.od,  on  tea,  los.  on  petroleum,  4s.  on  tobacco  ;  which 
sums  include  the  following  indirect  duties :  ;^2iis.  od. 
on  alcohol,  17s.  on  sugar,  £\  5s.  od.  on  tea,  2s.  6d.  on 
petroleum,  is.  on  tobacco !  Add  £2  los.  od.  of  direct 
taxes,  and  ;^3  5s.  od.  arrears  of  payment  for  the  land 
surrendered  to  the  peasants  after  the  abolition  of  serf- 
dom. Finally  count  in  the  50  per  cent,  of  "latent" 
imposts  on  manufactured  articles — tools,  clothes,  boots 
and  shoes,  etc. — under  the  form  of  Customs  duties  or 
their  equivalents  giving  a  premium  to  Russian  industrial 
enterprise,  and  it  is  clear  that  these  unfortunates  spend 
half  the  money  that  goes  through  their  hands  in  taxes  ! 
It  is  obvious  that  with  this  system  of  "  skinning  to 
the  quick,"  not  the  smallest  reserve  is  left  the  peasant 
to  apply  to  the  bettering  of  his  methods  of  production. 
Not  only  does  the  State  take  his  food  from  him,  but 
worse,  it  makes  it  an  impossibility  for  him  to  make 
arrangements  for  better  future  production.  So  true  is 
this  that,  for  instance,  after  a  "  middling "  harvest 
(middling  from  the  Russian  standpoint),  the  peasant  is 
frequently  unable  to  procure  the  grain  required  to  grow 
a  better.  This  was  part  cause  of  a  famine  of  several 
years'  duration  in  the  Northern  provinces,  the  plain  fact, 
officially  admitted,  being  that  "  the  seed  from  the  pre- 
vious year,  which  the  peasants  employed  to  sow  their 
fields,  was  not  ripe  or  suitable  for  the  purpose !  "  In 
other  districts  loss  of  draft  cattle,  lack  of  implements, 
and  a  hundred  other  similar  causes  produce  the  same 
result,  bad  harvest  and  famine,  more  particularly  famine, 


WITTE'S  REGIME  i6i 

since  the  wheat  lias  to  be  grown  for  sale,  and  the  taxes 
paid  as  punctually  as  ever. 

Does  Government  pay  no  heed  to  this  primary  and 
all-important  question, — improvement  of  agricultural 
methods  ?  It  is  perfectly  well  aware  that  it  is  not  at 
all  the  meteorological  conditions,  but  simply  the  artificial 
obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  solving  the  difficulty,  that 
cause  famines.  Ah,  yes,  it  cares  !  When  a  famine- 
struck  district  has  been  depopulated  by  hunger  and 
epidemics  for  several  years  running,  the  people  are 
supplied  with  corn  and  good  seed, — as  a  loan,  of  course. 
In  this  way  the  total  indebtedness  of  the  rural  conimiines 
is  still  further  increased.  And  as  it  is  precisely  the 
standing  impossibility  of  facing,  even  with  good  harvests, 
the  most  indispensable  expenses,  which  prevents  the 
peasants  from  improving  things,  and  which  in  conse- 
quence precipitates  famine,  this  spuriras  "charity" 
only  aggravates  the  seriousness  of  the  situation. 

There  exists  indeed  the  Credit  Agricolc,  which  should 
provide  the  peasantry  with  funds  necessary  for  making 
improvements.  Witte,  struck  with  the  horrors  of  the 
situation  at  the  moment  when  his  industrial  illusions 
were  breaking  up,  looked,  as  anyone  else  would  have 
done  in  his  place,  for  salvation  from  this  source,  and 
organised  the  Credit  Agricole.  Only,  how  give  credit  to 
men  already  over  head  and  ears  in  debt,  without  assets 
and  mentally  incapable  even  of  taking  advantage  of 
modern  apparatus  ?  How  could  Russian  agriculture, 
more  primitive  in  its  methods  than  that  of  almost  any 
other  part  of  the  world,  be  transformed  rapidly  enough 
to  guarantee  the  repayment  of  agricultural  loans,  even 
at  long  terms  of  years?  A  prudent  policy  was  adopted. 
During  a  period  of  five  years  exactly  281  loans  were 
granted,  the    total    amount    being    i^i 20,000,    among   a 

M 


1 62  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

peasant  population  of  at  least  lOO  millions !  The 
aggregate  assistance  afiforded  by  this  agency  would  just 
suffice  to  give  each  Russian  peasant  in  need  of  help  the 
magnificent  capital  sum  of — one  halfpenny  ! 

The  results  of  the  total  neglect  with  which  the  peasant 
has  been  treated  are  plain  to  see.  Debt,  want  of  imple- 
ments, fiscal  burdens,  have  reached  such  a  pitch  that 
neither  good  harvest  nor  bad  makes  the  smallest 
difference  in  the  general  situation.  In  bad  years,  the 
suffering  is  something  more  severe  ;  in  good  years  every- 
thing available  is  swept  off  to  pay  the  arrears  of  the  bad 
years. 

The  state  to  which  the  richest  regions  come  may  be 
seen  from  the  specific  instance  of  the  district  of  Balachefif, 
where  the  harvest  of  1903  was  very  good,  as  it  was  in 
the  whole  province  of  Saratoff  in  which  the  district  in 
question  is  included.  The  particulars  are  official,  having 
been  published  in  a  report  issued  by  the  Provincial 
Assembly. 

With  an  ordinary,  average  harvest,  the  population  of 
this  province  is  already  216  million  kilos,  of  wheat 
short,  simply  to  cover  the  consumption  of  bread  and  the 
payment  of  taxes,  to  say  nothing  of  clothing,  lodging, 
and  more  elaborate  needs.  To  supply  this  deficit,  the 
inhabitants  have  recourse  to  commerce,  fishing,  and  so 
on,  but  with  no  very  conspicuous  success.  Now,  side  by 
side  with  this  general  deficit  for  the  province  as  a  whole, 
there  is  in  the  district  of  Balacheff,  a  peculiarly  favoured 
area  included  within  the  other,  a  surplus  of  wheat 
amounting  to  192  kilos,  per  head.  The  gross  receipts 
of  the  rural  administration  of  the  district  are  5,120,000 
roubles  (;^5 12,000),  which  makes  i8'i5  roubles  per  head 
of  population. 

Now   how   are    these   handsome    revenues  (from  the 


WITTE'S  REGIME  163 

Russian  point  of  view)  of  £2  average  per  head  em- 
ployed ?  In  the  first  place,  the  District  has  to  pay 
4i5,CX)0  roubles  by  way  of  communal  taxes,  imposed 
by  the  local  administration  of  the  Zemstvos,  to  be 
described  on  a  subsequent  page  ;  besides  this,  197,000 
roubles  go  for  various  territorial  dues  (farming  out,  forests, 
&c.),  making  in  all  612,000  roubles  for  local  charges. 
From  the  balance  of  gross  receipts,  4,608,000  roubles, 
the  State  imposts  must  then  be  deducted  under  the 
following  heads  :  direct  taxes  (land-tax  and  payments 
to  the  Treasury  in  redemption  of  lands),  522,000  roubles  ; 
indirect  contributions  (customs,  spirits,  tobacco,  matches, 
petroleum,  sugar),  1,565,000  roubles — a  total  of  2,087,000 
roubles  paid  to  the  State.  The  total  revenue  thus 
comes  down  to  2,421,000  roubles,  the  District  paying 
53  p.c.  of  its  gross  revenues  in  taxation  !  Result,  there 
is  left  per  head  the  ridiculous  income  of  8  roubles  55 
kopeks,  exactly  i8j'.  3^.  per  head.  Out  of  this 
grotesquely  inadequate  amount  the  inhabitant  of  this 
favoured  district  must  supply  all  his  wants  beyond  mere 
food — clothing,  boots  and  shoes,  lodging,  household 
necessaries,  tools  and  implements,  feed  of  stock,  debts, 
interest  on  debts,  intellectual  needs,  and  everything 
else. 

We  stand  doubtful  and  disturbed  before  this  heart- 
breaking picture  of  the  condition  of  the  richest  district 
in  a  province  counting  as  one  of  the  most  prosperous  in 
all  Russia.  But  our  doubt  changes  to  amazement  when 
we  face  the  incontrovertible  fact  that  it  is  taxation  that 
brings  the  people  to  this  appalling  state  of  wretchedness. 
We  are  lost  in  admiration  at  the  genius  of  Witte,  who 
has  built  up  the  dazzling  edifice  of  Russian  wealth 
on  this  foundation  of  famine.  This  is  all  there  is 
to  show  for  the  augmentation  by  400  millions  of  roubles 

M   2 


1 64  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

(;^40,ooo,ooo),  of  the  revenues  of  the  Empire,  which  that 
mighty  economist  has  effected.  Since  the  bold  turn  of 
the  screw  in  1893,  in  his  first  accession  to  power,  he  has 
grown  more  and  more  daring.  Note  his  more  important 
measures :  increase  of  Customs  and  the  Tax  on  sugar, 
institution  of  tax  on  rents,  spirit  monopoly,  unreason- 
able increase  of  patent  charges ;  further,  the  "  war 
taxes  "  imposed  under  pretext  of  the  Chinese  campaign 
of  1900,  viz.,  increase  of  excise  in  beer  and  alcohol, 
increase  of  50  p.c.  on  seals  affixed  to  bottles  of  spirit, 
increase  of  tobacco  duty,  supplementary  dues  on  cheap 
brandy  intended  for  consumption  by  the  common 
people — none  of  which  burdens  have  been  removed 
since  the  war  in  question  came  to  an  end.  The  effect 
produced  is  even  more  striking.  Consumption  has 
actually  not  increased  as  fast  as  taxation.  In  the  case 
of  sugar,  the  nutritive  value  of  which  is  undeniable, 
taxation  has  risen  by  150  p.c,  consumption  being  75  p.c. 
only.  Petroleum  shows  a  still  more  disastrous  ratio, 
consumption  having  advanced  by  45  p.  c,  while  duties 
in  this  article  of  prime  necessity  have  risen  nearly  three- 
fold, that  is  120  p.c.  Things  are  just  as  bad  with 
imports  from  abroad  ;  the  total  value  of  these  has  grown 
under  the  Witte  regime  47  p  c,  while  Customs  charges 
have  risen  70  p.c.  Analogous  facts  can  be  proved  for 
matches,  tobacco,  alcoholic  products,  in  fact  for  all 
articles  taxed — and  there  is  scarcely  one  that  is  not. 
The  inevitable  conclusion  is  that  Witte's  wondrous 
fiscal  policy,  specifically  intended  to  develop  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  population,  the  natural  riches 
of  the  country,  industry,  commerce,  stability  of  the 
finances  of  the  State,  has  moved  in  a  vicious  circle 
much  to  be  deplored,  and  has  brought  about  exactly 
the  opposite  of  the  results  desired — universal  stagnation. 


WITTE'S  REGIME  165 

and  the  diminution  of  ability  to  consume  on  the  part  of 
the  vast  majority  of  the  people. 


An  Exhausted  Nation. 

What,  therefore,  could  be  more  intelligible  than  the 
economic  crisis  under  which  the  entire  nation  is  suffer- 
ing? And  what  more  certain  than  the  definitive  and 
not  merely  temporary  collapse  of  Russian  industry? 
This  is  the  result  of  the  more  and  more  depressed 
level,  not  of  the  wants,  but  of  the  purchasing  powers  of 
the  people ;  and  it  could  only  be  obviated  by  an 
improvement  of  well-being  among  the  agricultural 
population  which  is  rendered  impossible  by  the  fiscal 
system,  itself  again  only  the  inevitable  corollary  of  the 
policy  of  Tsarism.  It  was  only  quite  at  the  last,  a  few 
months  only  before  his  surrender  of  the  Portfolio  of 
Finance,  that  "  the  man  who  made  Russia  rich,"  was 
forced  to  acknowledge  the  utter  impossibility  of  extract- 
ing anything  nfbre  from  a  people  that  was  dying  by 
inches  ;  at  any  rate,  he  had  the  courage  to  say  so  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  military  and  official  Oligarchy 
was  demanding  a  further  provision  of  enormous  sums  to 
continue  its  work  of  warlike  expansion  in  the  Far  East. 
The  proof  he  has  furnished  of  the  degree  of  exhaustion 
to  which  the  people  has  sunk  is  infinitely  suggestive.  It 
refers  to  the  payment  of  the  annual  instalments  which 
the  serfs  enfranchised  in  1861  have,  for  a  term  of  forty- 
nine  years,  to  contribute  to  the  Exchequer  in  redemj)tion 
of  the  purchase  moneys  of  the  lands  surrendered  by  the 
feudal  nobles — moneys  the  full  amount  of  which  the 
State  originally  advanced  to  the  former  owners.  The 
round  sum  so  advanced  by  Government  reaches  an 
aggregate  of  754  million  roubles  (^^7 5,400,000).      The 


1 66  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

bonds  issued  by  the  Treasury  for  this  amount  were  to 
constitute  a  special  loan  to  be  paid  off  by  the  annual 
instalments  for  which  the  peasants  were  liable.  But  from 
1885  onwards  these  annual  payments  -came  in  badly. 
To  conceal  the  fact,  these  bonds  were  simply  thrown 
in  with  the  general  public  debt,  and  the  instalments 
treated  as  an  ordinary  budgetary  receipt ;  they  became 
officially  a  temporary  impost.  But  all  the  same,  pay- 
ment remained  in  abeyance  ;  and  arrears  accumulated 
to  a  more  and  more  serious  extent.  After  the  famine 
of  1891,  these  arrears  already  amounted  to  fifty  millions 
of  roubles.  Then  began  Witte's  era,  with  its  taxes,  its 
gold  standard,  its  improved  means  of  production  and 
communication.  Harvests  were  good  ;  but  to  every- 
one's amazement  the  arrears  grew  and  grew  at  a 
dizzy  rate  of  increase.  Soon  the  peasant  could  not  pay 
another  kopek  ;  and  in  1902  the  arrears  rose  to  the 
alarming  total  of  237  million  roubles  (;^23,78o,ooo)  !  Only 
a  third  of  the  total  advances  has  been  made  good  in 
forty  years.  Is  it  to  be  expected,  natfonal  impoverish- 
ment continuing  to  increase,  that  the  peasants  should 
pay  ;£^50,ooo,ooo  during  the  nine  years  left  to  run? 
The  arrears  annually  increased  by  millions  of  pounds 
sterling,  proving  that  the  peasants,  far  from  paying 
off  arrears,  were  not  capable  even  of  meeting  the 
current  imposts.  Nor  was  it  out  of  any  indulgence, 
we  may  be  sure,  that  the  Revenue  authorities  had 
suffered  the  enormous  growth  of  these  debts,  but 
simply  and  solely  because  they  could  find  nothing 
more  to  lay  hands  upon.  The  fact  could  not  be  gain- 
said— fresh  exactions  were  out  of  the  question. 

From  this  time  Witte  advocated  a  vast  scheme  of 
peasant  reforms  ;  but  this  would  have  broken  up  the 
war   policy    and    the    financial    arrangements    of    the 


WITTE'S  REGIME  167 

reactionary  Oligarchy,  and  he  was  unceremoniously 
shown  the  door.  (It  may  be  mentioned  incidentally, 
as  a  piquant  detail,  that  a  "  declaration  of  favour  "  from 
the  Tsar  was  issued  in  the  summer  of  1904,  "  remitting 
to  the  peasants  the  arrears  due  on  the  annual  instal- 
ments of  redemption."  All  this  cheap  bit  of 
magnanimity  implies  is  an  official  avowal  of  the 
impossibility  of  ever  recovering  the  sixty  million 
pounds  owing  from  the  peasants.  Nor  have  the  people 
reaped  any  real  advantage  from  this  "  gracious  act," 
for  .  .  .  they  find  themselves  already  face  to  face  with 
fresh  arrears.  In  one  word,  the  rescript  in  question  has 
put  the  official  seal  on  the  bankruptcy  of  forty  years' 
economic  administration. 

Motives  underlying  Fiscal  Oppression. 

If  we  inquire  into  the  psychological  reasons  that  led 
Witte  and  his  collaborators  to  create — involuntarily 
indeed — the  appalling  situation  just  outlined,  we  must 
carefully  distinguish  between  economic  intentions  and 
political  necessities.  So  far  as  the  former  are  con- 
cerned, it  is  obvious  enough  that  Witte  desired  Russia 
to  take  the  gigantic  stride  from  an  Oriental  country, 
living  essentially  upon  the  spontaneous  yield  of  its  soil, 
to  a  modern  nation  with  elaborate  wants  and  provided 
with  the  apparatus  necessary  to  supply  them  ;  a  great 
enhancement  of  the  general  well-being  should  have  re- 
sulted, while  the  simultaneous  formation  was  expected 
of  an  important  class  midway  between  the  govern- 
mental and  the  peasant  worlds,  as  also  a  beneficial 
development  of  the  intelligence  of  the  masses.  Could 
this  intention  (omitting  altogether  for  the  moment 
the  chronic  increase  of  taxation)  have   been    realised  ? 


1 68  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Undoubtedly  it  could,  on  condition  of  limiting  the 
exportation  of  wheat.  But  such  a  limitation  would 
have  rendered  the  establishment  of  the  gold  standard 
out  of  the  question,  and  this  alone  could  guarantee  the 
stability  of  Russia's  international  economic  relations. 
So  here,  too,  the  final  result  would  have  been  far  from 
satisfactory. 

Witte  was  able  to  create  all  the  necessary  modern 
plant  by  means  of  the  money  borrowed  from  France. 
Was  there  any  real  need  for  him  to  resort  to  these 
terrible  imposts  to  set  this  apparatus  in  active  use? 
Emphatically  no.  But  his  system  was  faulty  from  its 
basis,  because  he  could  not  follow  a  purely  economic 
policy.  His  economic  system  could  only  form  the 
auxiliary  of  the  general  Tsarian  policy,  serving  the  ends 
of  the  Oligarchy  delineated  above.  Its  claim  to  make 
the  national  economy  the  pivot  of  the  life  of  the  State 
immediately  collided  with  the  principles  governing 
Tsardom.  Even  the  most  favourable  results  he  could 
have  anticipated,  increase  of  popular  well-being  and 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  constituted  in  the  eyes  of  the 
ruling  Powers  aims  that  were  positively  revolutionary. 
To  set  up  in  face  of  the  old  bureaucratic  omnipotence, 
two  grand  new  forces — economic  energy  and  universal 
education — was  to  pronounce  the  death-sentence  of  the 
existing  regime.  Hence  from  the  first  a  life-and-death 
struggle,  now  openly  violent,  now  of  stealthy  intrigue, 
was  waged  by  the  reactionary  Oligarchy  against  this  up- 
start who  pursued  side-issues  in  dangerous  independence. 

The  development  of  the  economic  situation  might 
have  gone  on  almost  entirely  apart  from  the  regime  of 
administrative  oppression  ;  first  and  foremost,  therefore, 
it  was  incumbent  on  the  Oligarchy  to  secure  control  over 
it,  and  deflect  it  into  channels  more  profitable  to  its  own 


WITTERS  REGIME  169 

purposes.  It  is  the  political  needs  of  this  Oligarchy 
which,  by  their  astounding  spread,  have  led  inevitably 
to  the  merciless  application  of  the  fiscal  turn-screw. 
Witte  was  compelled  to  drop  into  line,  first,  to  save 
himself  from  falling  a  victim  to  the  sinister  machinations 
of  his  adversaries  ;  secondly,  to  keep  the  prestige  of 
Russia  intact,  embarked  as  she  now  was  on  all-important 
enterprises.  Indeed  it  was  essential  to  enhance  the 
country's  credit  still  further,  so  as  to  confirm  and 
strengthen  in  advance  the  great  economic  effort  on 
which  he  counted,  as  also  to  be  in  a  position  to  carry 
out  the  vast  schemes  of  economic  expansion  which  he 
fostered,  and  which  he  hoped  to  realise  by  an  adroit  ap- 
peal at  once  to  the  greedy  instincts  of  his  opponents  and 
to  the  megalomanaic  prepossessions  of  the  Tsar.  These 
schemes  are  what  actually  precipitated  the  revolutionary 
catastrophe  ;  these  more  than  anything  else — more  even 
than  the  general  impoverishment,  more  than  the  un- 
checked and  arbitrary  tyranny  of  the  Bureaucracy,  have 
brought  the  nation  to  a  consciousness  that  the  energies 
of  the  regime  it  endures  are  concentrated  on  objects 
utterly  foreign  to  its  own  proper  life. 

Policy  of  Expansion. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  idea  ot 
Russian  expansion  across  Asia,  the  idea  of  territorial 
conquests,  dominated  Government  circles  at  the  period 
when  Witte  took  the  reins.  This  idea  formed  the  bond 
connecting  the  new  Minister  with  the  special  world  into 
which  he  was  entering.  To  it  he  owes  his  brilliant 
career — to  it  the  final  checkmate  of  his  whole  system. 
This  idea,  however,  did  not  present  itself  in  quite  the 
same  light  to  him  as  to  the  two  powers  with  which  he 


I70  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

had  to  reckon — the  vacillating  will  of  the  Tsar,  and  the 
absorbing  interests  of  the  Oligarchy,  which  had  already 
laid  violent  hands  on  pretty  well  all  the  great  admini- 
strative departments  of  the  State. 

Alexander  III.,  when  Vychnegradski  avowed  the  im- 
possibility of  finding  funds  available  for  fresh  enterprises 
on  a  large  scale,  set  himself,  with  his  usual  short-sighted 
obstinacy,  to  look  for  a  man  who  would  undertake,  de- 
spite the  scarcity  of  money,  to  carry  out  the  mighty 
scheme  of  the  Trans-Siberian  Railway.  Witte  under- 
took the  task,  and  was  appointed  Minister.  The  Tsar 
and  his  brothers,  who  lived  entirely  under  the  empire  of 
dynastic  "  traditions,"  were  hypnotised  by  the  old  idea, 
falsely  attributed  to  Peter  the  Great,  that  Russia  must 
obtain  an  outlet  on  the  open  sea. 

The  invalidation  by  the  Congress  of  Berlin  of  the 
fruits  of  her  victory  over  Turkey  had  excluded  Russia 
from  the  Mediterranean.  Henceforward,  mastery  of  the 
Pacific  became  a  positive  mania  with  people  who, 
poring  over  small  scale  maps  of  the  world,  miscon- 
ceived the  distances,  and  entirely  failed  to  realise  that 
old  Russia  has  in  reality  no  point  of  contact,  and  still 
less  any  community  of  interests,  with  the  almost  unin- 
habited lands  beyond  Siberia.  They  coveted  the  Far 
East  in  the  name  of  "  historical  sequence."  Psycho- 
logically, this  tendency,  which  has  never  been  in  any 
sense  natural  to  Russia,  but  is  solely  a  dynastic  aspira- 
tion, has  a  much  simpler  explanation.  It  is  merely,  under 
another  form,  the  usual  mental  attitude  of  the  landed 
proprietor,  peasant  or  otherwise,  characterised  all  the 
world  over  by  a  desire  to  "  round  off"  his  property,  to 
enlarge  it  and  get  hold  of  adjacent  territory.  The 
Tsars,  regarding  themselves  as  the  essential  proprietors 
of  the  soil  occupied  by  their  subjects,  foster  the  same 


WITTE'S  REGIME  171 

desire,  and,  therefore,  lend  themselves  readily  to  all 
schemes  of  territorial  aggrandisement. 

The  expansionist  tendencies  of  the  bureaucratic  Oli- 
garchy, on  the  other  hand,  were  explained  above  as 
motived  by  a  desire  for  military  glory,  possibilities  of 
jobbery,  &c.,  and  the  possible  contingency  of  a  patriotic 
diversion  which  could  be  played  off  against  the  awaken- 
ing of  the  national  self-consciousness.  We  have  also  seen 
how  Nicholas  II.  was  influenced  in  the  same  direction  by 
this  group  in  the  course  of  the  journey  round  the  world, 
which  coincided  with  Witte's  assumption  of  office. 

The  latter,  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  English  economic 
methods,  and  particularly  of  their  system  of  commercial 
colonisation,  looked  at  Asiatic  expansion  in  quite  another 
light.  In  its  amalgamation  with  his  system  for  "  in- 
tensifying the  industrial  life  of  the  nation,"  he  saw  a 
further  possibility  of  securing  for  Russia,  now  a  manu- 
facturing country,  vast  outlets  for  her  products — outlets 
better  to  be  relied  on  perhaps  than  any  existing  within 
her  own  borders.  He  proclaimed  himself  the  apostle  of 
economic  expansion.  At  the  outset  the  requirements 
of  the  latter  were  precisely  the  same  as  those  of  the 
military  or  political  expansion  favoured  by  the  Tsar 
and  the  upper  ranks  of  the  Bureaucracy.  Improved 
means  of  communication  were  wanted — the  Trans- 
Siberian  Railway.  Thus  Wittc  was  only  doing  what 
might  have  been  expected  of  him  in  carrying  through 
that  enterprise. 

The  Franco-Russian  alliance,  the  accumulation  of  the 
gold  reserve,  the  budgetary  surpluses,  gave  him  the 
credit  necessary  to  begin  the  colossal  task  in  virtue  of 
the  loans  supplied  from  French  savings.  Even  this  first 
stage  on  the  road  of  expansion,  however,  involved  him  in 
the  necessity  of  fiscal  pressure,  destined  to  grow  heavier 


172  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

year  by  year.  In  fact,  payment  of  interest  to  lenders 
called  for  more  and  more  formidable  sums,  which  were  soon 
to  rise  in  1903  to  a  total  of  ^32,000,000,  a  liability  Russia 
could  not  possibly  meet  out  of  her  ordinary  revenue  re- 
ceipts. On  the  other  side,  very  large  accessory  expenses 
inevitablyaccompanied  the  progress  of  theworks.  Costs  of 
primary  installation  were  covered  by  French  loans,  but  the 
plant  had  to  be  provided,  to  say  nothing  of  employes 
and  officials — not  only  technical,  but  also  administrative, 
for  police,  &c. ;  the  convoy  of  starving  peasants  from 
Russia  proper  was  a  heavy  charge  ;  new  organisations, 
fiscal  and  otherwise,  had  necessarily  to  be  set  up  in  the 
countries  "  opened  up  "  by  the  new  line ;  while,  an 
inevitable  consequence  in  a  State  organised  on  a  military 
basis,  the  armed  forces  were  constantly  increased.  Seeing 
the  railway  remained  utterly  unremunerative,  all  this 
was  so  much  dead  loss  to  the  Treasury,  which  accord- 
ingly set  to  work  to  make  the  taxpayer  defray  the 
expenses  of  expansion. 

Economic  expansion,  with  its  marvellous  advantages, 
could  evidently  only  begin  with  the  completion  of  direct 
communication  between  the  Pacific  and  Europe !  Mean- 
time expenses  increased  out  of  all  reason,  partly  owing 
to  the  difficulties  encountered,  partly  from  the  peculation 
organised  on  an  enormous  scale.  Witte  resorted  more 
and  more  to  the  device  of  "  extraordinary  budgets," 
contriving  to  show  the  world  a  series  of  smiling  financial 
pictures,  by  setting  down  all  the  deficits  of  the  general 
budget  under  the  head  of  expenses  of  primary  installa- 
tion, and  covering  these  by  the  necessary  "  Treasury 
assets  available,"  which  were  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
the  borrowed  capital.  These  budgets  went  up  by  leaps 
and  bounds — to  attain  in  1903  a  figure  of  over 
^20,000,000. 


WITTE'S  REGIME  173 


The  Russo-Chinese  Empire. 

VVittc  thus,  for  several  years,  played  into  the  hands 
of  the  Oligarchy,  at  least  in  Asia.  In  Europe,  on 
the  contrary,  his  policy  of  industrial  intensification 
was  so  dangerous  to  the  Bureaucracy  that  the  latter 
tried  every  means  of  getting  rid  of  him.  lie  was  crea- 
ting an  industrial  proletariat,  alienating  the  peasantry, 
pampering  the  bourgeois  !  So  difficult  was  the  situation, 
that  in  1896,  when  Goremykine  was  Minister  of  the 
Interior  under  the  auspices  of  the  Oligarchy,  he  had  to 
break  back,  and  only  kept  the  hunt  at  bay  by  sending 
in  to  the  Tsar,  against  his  own  convictions,  a  report 
advocating  so  violently  reactionary  a  measure  that 
Plehve  himself,  as  well  as  Pobiedonostseff,  dared  not  sup- 
port it — the  virtual  suppression,  to  wit,  of  all  the  local 
powers  of  the  Zemstvos.  In  this  fashion  he  secured  two 
years'  peace.  But  during  that  interval  his  conceptions 
of  economic  expansion  were  completely  transmogrified. 

The  paralysis  of  the  manufacturing  industry  he  had 
set  going  proved  conclusively  that  Russia  would  be 
incapable  of  supplying  the  outlets  opened  up  in  Asia. 
The  habits  he  had  formed,  thanks  to  the  prepon- 
derant part  he  played  in  the  maintenance  of  Russian 
prestige,  of  almost  despotically  directing  both  the 
economic  life,  and  the  foreign  policy  of  the  Empire, 
had,  moreover,  launched  him  on  the  ocean  of  external 
politics.  The  new  horizons  opened  to  him  by  the 
consequences  of  the  Chino-Japanese  War,  as  well  as 
a  more  profound  insight  into  the  immense  social 
and  commercial  superiority  of  the  Chinese,  enticed 
him  into  the  grandiose  conception  of  a  vast  Russo- 
Chinese  Empire,  in  which  Northern  China  would  be  to 


174  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

European  Russia  what  in  France  the  industrial  and 
manufacturing  North  is  to  the  agricultural  South.  From 
that  day  the  realisation  of  this  daydream  dominated 
Witte's  ceaseless  activity. 

The  economist  became  a  statesman,  the  statesman 
aspired  to  become  an  empire-builder.  As  Benvenuto 
Cellini  threw  his  pewter  plates  into  the  melting-pot 
to  complete  the  casting  of  the  Perseus,  so  Witte  tossed 
everything  he  could  lay  hands  on  into  the  abyss  that 
separated  him  from  his  dream.  In  the  accomplishment 
of  his  gigantic  task,  he  overlooked  the  mass  of  poverty 
and  wretchedness  that  was  accumulating.  He  saw 
himself  a  conquering  hero.  For  the  time,  in  view  of 
his  new  ideal  of  world  expansion,  he  required  the 
concentration  of  all  possible  resources,  economic, 
financial,  political,  diplomatic — some  to  win  fresh 
conquests,  others  to  keep  them.  His  methods  were 
marvels  of  precision,  energy  and  adroitness.  Yet 
he  essentially  remained  throughout  what  he  had  always 
been,  an  economist,  a  shrewd  financier,  a  master  of 
astute  negotiation.  This  he  utilised  in  all  quarters  and 
under  all  circumstances — in  France,  to  raise  capital,  in 
England,  to  secure  freedom  from  interference,  in 
Germany,  to  stop  the  Kaiser  from  intruding  on  his 
sphere  of  activity,  in  China  to  impose  himself  as 
protector  in  chief  against  all  and  everyone,  Europeans, 
Japanese,  secret  societies,  Buddhist  monks,  receiving 
payment  for  these  Platonic  services  in  scraps  of  territory, 
— the  nuclei  of  territorial  possessions  that  were  to  lead 
up  to  the  future  amalgamation  of  the  two  richest 
Empires  in  the  world.  Besides — his  master-stroke  ! — 
he  remained  all  along  the  absolute  and  persistent 
opponent  of  violence.  He  only  threatened  military 
intervention,  careful  never  really  to  endanger  the  eventual 


WITTE'S  REGIME  175 

union  of  the  different  peoples  by  any  resort  to  brute 
force.  This  few  years  of  feverish  activity,  of  intense  and 
all-embracing  energy  to  so  extraordinary  a  degree, 
afford  a  wonderful  instance  of  individual  force.  At  last 
the  moment  arrived  when,  after  setting  a  calamitous 
blunder  of  the  military  oligarchy  to  rights,  Witte  could 
reasonably  look  for  the  slow  and  gradual  realisation 
of  his  dreams  of  pacific  annexation. 


Intervention  of  the  Oligarchy. 

But  the  catastrophe  was  at  hand  !  The  critical  symp- 
tom, the  plague  of  national  poverty  and  wretchedness, 
grew  and  spread  apace,  the  while  Witte's  power — it  were 
mockery  to  say  the  Tsar's — weighed  more  heavily  upon 
Eastern  Asia. 

The  mirage  of  a  world  empire,  of  which  China  should 
be  the  industrial  centre,  made  him  regard  Russian 
industry,  his  own  child,  with  contemptuous  pity,  and 
his  sympathies  came  back  to  the  neglected  and  down- 
trodden peasants.  Abhorring  military  violence,  abandon- 
ing the  notion  of  economic  invasion,  now  impracticable, 
he  had  only  one  weapon  left  for  the  execution  of  his 
plans — words,  diplomacy.  These  he  employed  more 
skilfully,  perhaps,  than  ever  statesman  before  him.  But 
nowadays  words  fall  on  deaf  ears  unless  there  is  brute 
force  behind  them.  Diplomacy  summoned  the  army, 
and  the  military  and  bureaucratic  caste,  living  on  brute 
force,  saw  the  moment  coming  when,  by  pushing  through, 
and  passing  beyond,  the  movement  originated  by  Witte, 
contrary  to  his  wishes,  it  could  make  the  appeal  to  arms 
inevitable,  and  involve  the  fall  of  the  man  who  had  done 
more  than  any  other  to  create  a  modern  middle-class  in 


176  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Russia,  and  to  rouse  the  spirit  of  revolt  against  a  regime 
wrapped  up  in  undertakings  of  which  the  remote  profits 
existed  only  in  the  fancy  of  their  inaugurators. 

Witte,  reduced  to  dependence  on  his  diplomatic 
subtlety  alone,  face  to  face  with  a  more  and  more 
excited  condition  of  foreign  feeling,  brought  the  general 
policy  of  the  Empire  into  conformity  with  new  prin- 
ciples. To  maintain  Russia's  moral  prestige  in  Europe 
and  in  those  parts  of  Asia  which  she  was  coveting,  to 
steer  clear  of  all  provocation  of  Foreign  States,  to  safe- 
guard the  future  by  the  simple  avoidance  of  internal 
and  external  crises,  to  build  up  and  consolidate  a  more 
than  ever  dazzling  rampart  about  the  country,  pending 
the  amalgamation  of  Russia  with  Northern  China — a 
union  which,  on  the  basis  of  results  accomplished,  would 
come  about  almost  spontaneously  in  due  course — such 
were  the  aims  of  his  last  period  of  political  activity. 
Peace,  financial  sagacity,  peasant  colonisation,  relinquish- 
ment to  others  of  industrial  enterprise  and  adminis- 
trative influence  in  Asia,  peasant  reform,  moral 
purification  of  the  powers  that  be,  natural  development, 
spontaneous  cure  of  the  economic  fever  in  the  country — 
such  were  the  pre-conditions  essential  to  the  success  of 
this  wise  and  prudent  policy — the  only  one  capable  of 
avoiding  internal  and  external  disaster. 

But  these  were  precisely  the  conditions  which  meant 
checkmate,  failure,  and  annihilation  for  the  oligarchical 
regime  which  worked  alongside  him  and  beneath  him, 
and  which  he  had  debarred  from  the  omnipotence  it  had 
coveted  for  the  last  ten  years  !  In  departments  in  which 
Witte  could  not  intervene,  this  r/^m^  had  paraded  its  grow- 
ing influence  and  growing  effrontery  with  impunity.  Civil 
administration,  public  instruction,  administration  of 
justice,  religious  observance,  management  of  the  navy,  and 


WITTE'S  REGIME  177 

to  a  large  extent  of  the  army  also,  had  fallen  into  its  hands. 
Everywhere  it  had  superadded  to  the  righteous  indig- 
nation of  a  starving  people  the  equally  righteous  fury  of 
a  nation  robbed  of  its  rights,  of  justice  and  of  education, 
a  nation  reduced  to  the  most  humiliating  slavery  to  the 
countless  petty  tyrants  of  the  magistracy,  the  police,  the 
clergy,  who  were  merely  the  servile  instruments  to  carry 
out  the  sentences  of  the  oligarchical  associations  directed 
by  Plehve,  Pobiedonostseff,  Muravicff,  the  Grand  Dukes 
and  the  Moscow  Group.  Nay,  even  where  Witte  ruled 
as  a  virtual  dictator,  the  influence  of  this  underground 
coalition  made  itself  felt  at  times  by  the  mouth  of 
Nicholas  II.,  terrorised  by  his  mother,  his  sister,  or  his 
uncles.  Witte,  was,  and  is  still,  the  best  hated  and 
the  worst  feared  man  at  Court.  The  Tsar  feels  a 
positive  terror  before  his  superiority,  and  would  rather 
read  his  reports  than  discuss  matters  with  him.  The 
brainless  Court  world  has  turned  his  private  life  into  a 
handle  against  him,  and  declares  him  "impossible."  He 
had  the  boldness,  the  effrontery,  to  marry  a  woman  who 
was  not  only  divorced — Society  winks  at  many  curious 
domestic  arrangements,  vicnagcs  a  trois,  Dicnages  a 
cinqiiante  if  needs  be,  provided  they  are  "  regular" — but 
was  of  Jewish  descent,  and,  moreover,  had  the  unpar- 
donable fault  of  possessing  intellectual  abilities  in  a 
milieu  where  imbecility  is  the  one  thing  needful. 
Accordingly  she  has  never  been  received  ;  and  Witte 
has  since  then  adopted  a  scornful  attitude  towards 
Court  circles,  which  isolates  him  absolutely.  His  atti- 
tude is  admirable,  but  dangerous  in  the  midst  of  a 
society  bound  together  by  a  thousand  ties  of  intrigue. 


178  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Triumph  of  Reaction. 

On  the  death  of  the  Chancellor  Lobanoff,  Witte  was 
supposed  to  have  lost  his  influence  over  foreign  policy, 
the  Oligarchy  having  succeeded,  after  a  brief  interregnum, 
in  installing  one  of  its  unprovided  members  in  office — the 
brother,  the  worthy  brother,  of  the  destroyer  of  justice, 
Muravieff  But  his  influence  still  preponderated  to  such 
a  degree  that  Muravieff  could  not  establish  his  policy. 
The  first  time,  indeed,  that  he  set  himself  by  a  dark 
intrigue  to  reverse  the  system  of  pacific  expansion 
proved  fatal  to  him.  This  was  in  1900  at  the  time 
of  the  Boxer  rising  in  China.  The  Oligarchy  believed 
that  the  time  had  come  to  ratify  its  own  particular 
conception  of  expansion  by  plunging  into  a  warlike 
expedition,  involving  enormous  opportunities  for  job- 
bery. Witte  had  already  taken  skilful  precautions  for 
the  protection  of  the  Chinese  dynasty,  at  the  same  time 
securing  guarantees  for  an  adequate  quid  pro  quo  ; 
but  Muravieff  spoiled  the  whole  scheme  by  insisting  on 
the  international  expedition.  Witte  explained  the  folly 
of  the  thing  to  the  Tsar,  and  Muravieff  poisoned  himself 
next  day.  The  military  occupation  of  Manchuria  was 
carried  out  nevertheless  ;  and  though  Witte  saved  his 
policy  in  China  from  shipwreck,  this  nevertheless  con- 
stituted his  first  serious  check.  The  Oligarchy,  on  the 
other  hand,  scored  its  first  triumph  in  Asia,  and  found 
itself  well  on  the  road  to  substitute  military  conquest  for 
pacific  expansion. 

Apart  from  Witte,  two  high  dignitaries  only  held 
aloof  from  the  reactionary  conspiracy,  the  Minister  of 
War,  Kuropatkin,  and  the  successor  of  the  dead  Mura- 
vieff, Count  Lamsdorff.  These  three,  between  them,  con- 
stituted for  yet  another  three  years  a  last  rampart  of  true 


WITTE'S  REGIME  179 

government  against  the  concentrated  assaults  of  a  group, 
whose  only  dream  was  to  replace  administration  by  an 
organised  monopoly  of  tyranny  and  jobbery.  These 
three  years  were  filled  with  a  bitter,  ruthless  struggle, 
under  cover  of  which  the  country  was  progressing 
towards  revolution  in  proportion  with  the  successes  of 
the  Oligarchy.  For  the  reactionaries  won  inevitably  ; 
they  held  the  best  cards.  Witte's  policy,  moreover,  had 
culminated  in  such  a  situation  that  only  the  sternest 
repression,  the  "  white  terror,"  seemed  to  the  terror- 
stricken  Nicholas  capable  of  safeguarding  the  aristocracy 
against  liberal  aspirations  fostered  by  the  creation  of 
the  industry  of  an  organised  proletariat  at  home,  while 
abroad  pacific  expansion  had  reached  a  limit  where  the 
slightest  provocation  might  give  occasion  for  a  glorious 
military  achievement. 

Thus  military  enterprise,  covert  at  first,  but  growing 
more  and  more  open  and  unblushing,  began  in  Asia 
to  preponderate  over  diplomacy  and  economic  activity  ; 
while  in  Russia  the  most  brutal  reaction  against  the 
even  more  bitterly  exasperated  masses  once  more  threw 
all  questions  of  material  progress  into  the  background. 
Popular  hatred  was  no  longer  aimed  at  those  men  who 
starved  the  people,  but  at  those  who  had  made  economic 
failure  inevitable  by  refusing  the  masses  the  means  of 
improving  their  condition  ;  its  objective  was  not  Witte, 
but  the  Oligarchy,  which  deliberatel)'  organised  the  true 
causes  of  its  wretchedness — ignorance  and  injustice. 
Bogoliepoff,  a  creature  of  the  Grand  Duke  Serge, 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  peculiarly  odious  for  the 
obstacles  he  put  in  the  way  of  higher  education,  was 
killed  by  a  shot  from  a  revolver.  Repression  became 
harsher,  the  Oligarchy  more  powerful.  Sipiaguine, 
another  creature  of  Serge,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  met 

N    2 


i8o  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  like  fate.  And  then  the  Ohgarchy  reached  its 
apogee  under  Plehve's  guidance,  when  at  last  the  latter 
seized  the  reins  of  power.  The  crowning  period,  and 
the  most  terrible,  of  Bureaucratic  autocracy  dawned. 
The  absolute  cessation  of  the  impetus  which  Witte  had 
imparted  to  the  internal  and  external  life  of  the  State 
coincides  with  this  period.  This  was  no  accident.  A 
living  organism  would  have  combated  the  infection. 
Only  a  dead  organism  could  tolerate  the  domination 
and  triumph  of  a  regime  which  is  to  the  State  what 
putrefaction   is  to  a  corpse. 


Plehve  as  Dictator. 

A  section  of  the  Oligarchy  itself  deprecated  the  open 
encouragements  which  Plehve's  supremacy — his  mon- 
strous past  was  proof  sufficient — could  not  fail  to  give 
to  bureaucratic  corruption.  They  feared  the  diminution 
of  Russia's  moral  prestige  abroad,  and  the  enhancement 
of  popular  odium  ;  while  there  were  particular  individuals 
among  them  who  dreaded  for  themselves  the  insolent 
irresponsibility  and  intriguing  police  methods  of  a 
Minister  who  inspired  as  much  terror  as  contempt.  But 
apprehension  of  the  infuriated  nation  mastered  these 
fears  of  the  terrible  police  official ;  Plehve  was  deemed 
the  only  man  capable  of  stamping  out  the  reign  of 
terror  which  was  beginning  to  assert  itself  The  Grand 
Dukes  forced  him  upon  the  Tsar  against  the  wish  of 
nearly  all  the  high  functionaries,  who  were  not,  like 
them,  safe  from  his  machinations.  And  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  Pobiedonostseff  was  Plehve's  first  victim.  The 
Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod  had  a  horror  of  the  man 
who  had    been    nominated   to    succeed    the    murdered 


WITTE'S  REGIME  i8i 

Sipiaguine,  and  he  protested  vigorously  against  his 
appointment. 

"  I  protest,"  he  said,  "  against  the  fellow  who  has  tried 
three  different  religions  the  better  to  get  on  the  side  of 
the  strongest ;  if  the  Jews  were  in  power,  he  would  turn 
Jew  to-morrow.  He  is  a  man  without  principle — 
necessary,  if  you  will,  but  who  should  be  confined  to 
duties  where  he  can  be  checked."  Plehve  was,  never- 
theless, appointed.  At  first  he  endeavoured  to  creep 
into  PobiedonostsefTs  good  graces  by  the  device  of 
winning  over  the  Holy  Synod.  He  made  a  retreat  of  a 
week  in  the  Alexander  Nevski  Monastery,  to  expiate  his 
sins !  But  the  farce,  which  the  whole  Orthodox  Press 
reprobated  directly,  only  exasperated  Pobiedonostseff. 
Then  Plehve  changed  his  tactics,  and  the  once 
omnipotent  Procurator  found  himself  ousted  from  his 
preponderant  status,  after  Plehve  had  shown  the  Tsar, 
by  fraudulent  repoits,  that  he  alone  was  master  of  police 
control  sufficient  to  hold  in  check  the  revolutionary 
groups. 

Plehve's  governmental  action — later,  we  shall  see  its 
effect  on  the  people — was  summed  up  in  one  procedure 
— the  installation  of  members  of  the  Oligarchy  not  yet 
placed  in  the  few  chief  offices  of  administration  still 
filled  by  "outsiders."  The  unquestioned  omnipotence 
of  the  group,  and  subsequently  the  making  of  capital, 
financial  and  moral — if  we  dare  say  so — out  of  all  de- 
partments of  the  State,  constituted  the  real  aim  followed. 
His  policy  involved  in  the  first  place  the  fall  of  the  three 
Ministers  outside  the  clique,  vis.,  Witte,  Lamsdorff  and 
Kuropatkin  ;  secondly,  the  substitution  of  military  ex- 
pansion in  Asia  for  diplomatic  action  and  gradual 
colonisation,  in  order  to  secure  three  objects — military 
glory,  chances  of  [)eculation,  and  a  patriotic  diversion  of 


1 82  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  popular  discontent  ;  lastly,  steady  administrative 
pressure  in  the  direction  of  the  total  stifling  of  any 
manifestation  of  popular  grievances  and  of  advisers 
competent  to  guide  the  people  or  the  Tsar.  The  system 
may  be  exemplified  by  one  or  two  definite  instances. 

One  day,  old  Prince  Metcherski,  editor  of  the  Graj- 
danine,  and  a  personal  friend  of  Alexander  III.,  a  man 
whose  boast  it  is  to  hold  the  record  of  reactionary 
ideas,  was  disgusted  to  see  himself  outpaced  by  Plehve's 
right-hand,  the  Imperial  Councillor  Platonoff.  He  ran 
to  his  friend  Plehve  and  asked  him  why  everything  was 
censored  now,  down  to  the  mere  business  discussions 
in  the  Town  Council  of  St.  Petersburg.  He  insisted 
upon  the  order  being  rescinded. 

"  It  is  utterly  impossible,"  Plehve  told  him,  with  a 
view  of  covering  Platonoff. 

"  But  why  ?  " 

"  Because  these  Boards  often  include  intelligent  men, 
quite  capable  of  proving  to  the  representatives  of 
authority  that  they  are  in  the  wrong.  Such  things  tend 
to  shake  the  respect  due  to  the  Government." 

The  character  of  the  regime  comes  out  still  more 
typically  in  another  incident  of  the  same  date  (1902), 
when  the  irreconcilable  antagonism  between  Plehve  and 
Witte  was  displayed  for  the  first  time  in  a  dangerous 
shape.  In  the  provinces  of  the  South-West,  particularly 
those  of  Poltava  and  Chernigoff,  there  was  an  alarming 
peasant  outbreak. 

The  starving  people  had  attacked  and  pillaged  the 
seats  of  the  great  landed  proprietors,  in  order  to  dis- 
tribute the  stocks  of  wheat  therein  accumulated.  Prince 
Obolenski,  entrusted  with  the  task  of  restoring  order  (for 
which  he  paid  later  by  a  revolver  shot  from  the  peasant 


WITTE'S  REGIME  183 

Katchura,  although  subsequently  promoted  by  the  Tsar 
to  the  dignity  of  Governor-General  of  Finland),  had  found 
no  better  method  than  that  of  flogging  the  peasants, 
guilty  and  innocent  alike,  till  the  blood  came,  and  issuing 
an  express  order  to  his  Cossacks  to  violate  their  women. 
The  situation,  originating  in  the  famine  and  the  arbitrary 
action  of  the  local  authorities,  was  very  serious.  Plehve 
concealed  the  facts  from  foreign  eyes,  in  a  very  ingenious 
manner.  He  had  broad  sheets  printed  and  signed  by  a 
non-existent  revolutionary  committee,  in  which  he  in- 
corporated a  7ikase — of  course  fictitious — from  the  Tsar, 
directing  the  peasants  to  divide  the  lands  of  the  great 
proprietors  amongst  themselves.  Next,  he  had  these 
manifestoes  "  seized,"  and  appealed  to  their  contents  to 
prove  to  an  astonished  world  that  the  Russian  peasant 
is  more  fervently  Tsarian  than  ever,  and  that  the  Re- 
volutionaries, to  lead  the  people  astray,  are  forced  to 
make  use  of  the  Tsar's  name !  The  trick  found  some 
dupes  in  Western  Europe,  but  none  in  Russia. 

The  Government  was,  indeed,  so  alapmed  at  this 
first  symptom  of  peasant  revolt  that  it  seriously  began 
to  consider  what  general  measures  should  be  adopted. 
A  Special  Council  was  convened,  its  debates  being 
carried  through  in  a  most  suggestive  fashion. 

Those  present  were :  Pobicdonostscfif,  Procurator  of 
the  Holy  Synod ;  Plehve,  Minister  of  the  Interior ; 
Witte,  Minister  of  Finance  ;  Kuropatkin,  IMinistcr  of 
War.  The  order  of  the  day  was  :  Measures  entailed  by 
the  agricultural  disturbances  ;  declaration  of  ministers' 
opinion  on  the  social  outlook. 

Kuropatkin. — We  cannot  go  on  like  this  for 
more  than  four  years.  After  that  the  Army  cannot 
hold  out. 


1 84  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

WiTTE. — We  can  manage  for  six  years,  if  we  are 
amenable  in  the  matter  of  imposts. 

POBIEDONOSTSEFF. — Perhaps  for  ten  years,  if  we 
succeed   in  clericalising  education. 

Plehve. — Possibly  even  for  twelve  years,  if  I  publish 
some  Manifestoes  containing  promises  for  a  distant  date, 
the  fulfilment  of  which  can  be  postponed  still  longer. 

Upon  this  followed  a  lively  scene.  Witte  reproached 
Plehve  for  advocating  a  policy  which,  on  his  own  show- 
ing, would  lead  to  nothing.  The  Tsar,  when  the  facts 
were  put  before  him,  was  within  an  ace  of  agreeing  with 
Witte.  But  the  Empress-Dowager  intervened,  and 
saved  (or  rather  lost)  the  situation. 

From  this  time  Witte  washed  his  hands  of  events  in 
Russia,  and  occupied  himself  exclusively  with  financial 
administration  and  with  the  direction  of  affairs  in  Asia. 
Kuropatkin  and  Lamsdorff  prudently  refrained  from  any 
debatable  action  on  the  territory  of  internal  politics. 
But  for  Asiatic  affairs  the  case  was  different.  After 
the  China  Campaign  of  1900,  Witte  had  succeeded 
by  a  series  of  diplomatic  manoeuvres  in  keeping  up 
Russian  prestige  and  the  interests  of  Russia  at  the 
Court  of  Peking.  But  he  was  unable,  in  face  of  the 
underhand  conduct  of  the  Oligarchy,  to  arrange  matters 
in  the  same  way  with  Japan.  His  reiterated  attempts 
to  frustrate  the  projects  of  Li-Hung-Chang,  who  wanted 
to  embroil  Russia  and  Japan,  in  order  to  strengthen  the 
hands  of  China,  failed.  The  pivot  of  these  efforts,  in 
fact,  could  only  be  a  Convention,  if  not  an  Alliance,  with 
Japan.  And  that  was  precisely  what  the  Oligarchy 
dreaded  :  it  would  have  been  the  triumph  of  Witte's 
System. 

Powerful  arguments  were  accordingly  brought  for- 
ward, to  convince  the  Tsar  of  the  inanity  of  this  system  : 


WITTE'S  REGIME  185 

the  economic  expansion  of  Russia  did  not  exist  as  yet  for 
the  Far  East  ;  military  prestige  alone  availed  there. 
A.lexeieff,  whose  connection  with  the  Oligarchy  has 
already  been  shown,  was  in  chief  command  of  the  Naval 
Forces  of  the  Pacific.  A  symbolic  fight  took  place 
between  him  and  Witte,  round  the  two  key  positions  of 
Russia  on  the  Yellow  Sea  :  Port  Arthur,  the  symbol  of 
military  force  ;  Dalny,  symbolic  of  economic  strength. 
This  latter  city,  artificial,  magnificent,  its  foundation 
having  withal  cost  hundreds  of  millions  (stolen  for  the 
most  part),  had  remained  lifeless  ;  its  commerce  was  nil. 
And  the  Tsar  readily  accepted  the  reasoning  of  Alcxeicff 
who  affirmed  that  not  Dalny,  but  Port  Arthur,  was  the 
representative  seat  of  Russian  Power,  where  the  Tsar's 
"  Proconsul "  should  have  his  residence. 

Further,  it  was  absolutely  impossible  for  Witte  to 
convince  the  Tsar  of  the  folly  of  the  Manchurian 
Invasion  of  1900.  In  the  eyes  of  Nicholas,  the  military 
occupation  was  a  fait  accompli,  symbol  of  a  definite 
taking  possession.  That  this  occupation  signified  the 
spoliation  of  China  and  a  direct  challenge  to  Japan, 
mattered  to  him  the  less,  in  that  he  believed  his  military 
force  to  be  superior  to  that  of  those  two  "half-civilised  " 
nations. 

From  this  moment,  Witte  was  constrained  to  the 
defensive  ;  his  sole  hope  was  to  countermine  the  fatal 
projects  of  the  Oligarchy.  It  was  at  tliis  time  that  he 
demonstrated  to  the  Tsar  the  impossibility  of  laying 
fresh  burdens  on  the  shoulders  of  the  people.  He  even 
went  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  appeal  to  patriotic  sacrifice 
would  not  succeed  for  eventualities  to  come,  the 
Nation  being  absolutely  indifferent  to  expansion  in  the 
direction  of  the  Pacific.  The  Tsar  showed  great  dis- 
pleasure   at    this    observation,   and   declared    that   there 


1 86  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

was  no  danger  of  military  complications.  Witte 
summoned  Kuropatkin  and  Lamsdorff  to  the  rescue. 
The  one  proved,  documents  in  hand,  that  Japan  \va? 
preparing  for  war  ;  the  other  cited  his  diplomat-c 
despatches  as  evidence  that  the  whole  Universe  was 
anticipating  a  catastrophe,  in  which  Russia  would 
remain  isolated.  The  proofs  of  the  one  were  invalidated 
by  the  reports  of  Alexeieff,  who  submitted  his  grandilo- 
quent lucubrations  by  the  hand  of  Plehve,  in  order  to 
convince  the  Tsar  of  his  own  strength  and  of  the 
despicable  weakness  of  Japan.  The  despatches  of  the 
second  were  successfully  refuted  by  the  occult  diplomatic 
service  organised  by  Plehve.  The  Tsar  hesitated  for 
some  time.  The  Oligarchy  was  on  thorns  :  had  it  lost 
its  ascendency  with  the  Crown  ? 

Witte,  Kuropatkin,  and  Lamsdorff,  Witte's  ultimate 
creation,  were  still  holding  their  ground.  It  was  more 
necessary  than  ever  to  get  hold  of  the  Tsar  himself. 
Plehve,  as  Minister  of  the  Interior,  was  something ; 
Wahl  and  Kleigels,  creatures  of  Plehve  and  of  the 
Empress-Dowager,  holding  high  positions,  were  also 
valuable  assets.  But  at  the  Court  a  younger  set  were 
reigning ;  Vanlialarski's  ladies  were  older  than  they 
had  been.  Pobiedonostseff  saw  himself  superseded  by 
Plehve,  and  the  Empress-Dowager,  as  reactionary  as  he 
could  wish,  was  too  autocratic  to  permit  herself  to  be 
utilised  for  other  ends  than  her  own  omnipotence.  A 
new  card  was  required  at  the  Court.  It  was  found  in 
the  person  of  the  Grand  Duke  Alexander  Mikhailovitch, 
who,  out  of  pure  hatred  to  Witte,  did  not  hesitate  to 
throw  himself  head  foremost  into  the  cause  of  the  New 
Oligarchy.  And  what  a  recruit !  He  had,  as  everyone 
knows,  espoused  the  Emperor's  sister,  a  sister  who  is 
above    all    her  mother's  daughter,    that    is   to    say,  the 


WITTE'S  REGIME  187 

representative  of  the  ideas  of  Pobicdonostseff.  And  it 
is  she  who  has  till  now,  among  all  who  have  access  to 
the  Tsar,  had  the  greatest  influence  upon  the  Imperial 
decisions. 

The  bait  of  personal  profit  made  the  Grand  Duke  the 
instrument  of  the  Oligarchy.  He  communicated  his 
mental  atmosphere  to  the  Tsar  in  the  matter  of  the 
Forestry  Concessions  at  Yonghampo  in  the  Korea. 
Bezobrazoff  had  touched  a  sensory  nerve  in  advocating 
this  affair.  We  have  seen  how  he  accomplished  his  aim 
with  the  aid  of  spiritualism.  The  conspiracy  against 
Witte,  Lamsdorff  and  Kuropatkin,  the  conspiracy 
against  the  world's  peace,  the  conspiracy  for  the  omni- 
potence of  the  Oligarchy,  and  for  peculation  on  the 
largest  possible  scale,  was  prepared.  The  "  dissensions  " 
between  Witte  and  Alexander  Mikhailovitch  (interference 
with  the  grand  ducal  prevarications)  precipitated  its 
success. 


The  Provocation  to  War. 

The  policy  of  Alexcicff  antl  Bczobra/.off,  a  policy  of 
provocation  of  Japan,  was  represented  to  the  Tsar  by 
his  brother-in-law  as  the  logical  consequence  of  Witte's 
policy.  The  latter  had  actually  from  the  outset  plotted 
expansion  solely  on  economic  and  diplomatic  lines. 
The  Russo-Chinese  Bank  and  the  Port  of  Dalny  were 
his  principal  weapons. 

But  those  on  the  spot  had  been  obliged  by  the 
historical  development  of  affairs  to  confront  the  lunpire 
with  a  totally  different  situation.  The  "  politics  on  the 
spot,"  whether  military  or  imperial,  of  Alexcicff— by 
which  he  had   feathered  his  own   nest —had  done  their 


1 88  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

work.  Result,  Alexeieff  protected  Manchuria  as  if  it  were 
Russian,  and  ;^  1,600,000  from  the  coffers  of  the  Dynasty- 
were  pledged  in  Korea.  The  one  could  not  be 
abandoned  ;  the  other  must  not  be  lost.  It  became 
a  question  of  national  honour  in  the  mouth  of  Alexander 
Mikhailovitch,  who  made  Witte  responsible  for  the 
accomplished  fact.  The  latter,  however,  still  held  out, 
and  violently  opposed  the  continuance  of  this  policy. 
The  Tsar  still  hesitated  !  It  was  obviously  necessary  to 
dispose  of  the  three  unwelcome  guests  at  any  cost,  and 
to  organise  systematic  machinations.  The  plan  was 
soon  sketched  out. 

Alexander  Mikhailovitch  would  make  the  fall  of 
Witte  his  business,  and  would  become  Minister  of  the 
Mercantile  Marine.  Alexeieff  and  Bezobrazoff  would 
prosecute  the  quarrel  with  Japan  to  the  bitter  end. 
Plehve  should  embroil  the  affairs  of  Lamsdorff  still 
further  in  order  to  replace  him  by  Izvolski,  the  Minister 
at  Copenhagen,  a  partisan  of  the  Empress-Dowager. 
Kuropatkin  should  be  discredited  by  preventing  him 
from  facing  the  consequences  of  premeditated  provoca- 
tions. Sakharoff,  the  quondam  "  comrade  "  of  Moscow, 
should  replace  him.  The  entire  group  of  Generals 
behind  Sakharoff  should  find  advantageous  posts  in 
the  Far  East,  and  assume  the  direction  of  affairs 
(of  corruption)  out  there.  Plehve  would  accordingly 
become  spontaneously  omnipotent  at  St.  Petersburg. 

The  campaign  was  conducted  on  quite  superior  lines. 
Alexander  Mikhailovitch  accomplished  the  defeat  of 
Witte  over  the  question  of  the  price  of  wood  from  his 
Siberian  domains.  He  acquired  the  direction  of  the 
Merchant  Marine,  an  inexhaustible  source  of  profit. 
Bezobrazoff,  the  "  peaceful  conqueror  "  of  the  Korea,  and 
still  more  of  the  Tsar's  millions,  was  appointed  Minister 


WITTE'S  REGIME  189 

without  a  portfolio,  and  Director  of  Affairs  in  the  Far 
East.  This  coup  was  so  astounding  that  the  officials, 
knowing  of  five  l^ezobrazoffs  who  were  generals  or 
senators,  prepared  five  distinct  orders  of  nomination. 
They  did  not  even  take  into  consideration  the  name  of 
the  shady  man  of  business  !  The  Tsar,  who  was  furious, 
was  obliged  to  return  the  whole  packet,  and  give  his 
dumbfounded  Chancellery  the  indications  necessary  for 
the  proper  formulation  of  the  Decree.  Alexeieff  was 
simultaneously  appointed  Viceroy  of  the  Far  East  a 
few  days  before  the  departure  of  Witte.  The  importance 
of  this  measure  consisted  in  three  points,  the  gravity  of 
which  is  obvious  : 

1.  Lamsdorff  had  no  further  influence  on  matters  that 
concerned  China  and  Japan  ; 

2.  Kuropatkin  was,  as  regards  organisation  of  war  in 
the  Far  East,  the  subordinate  of  Alexeieff; 

3.  The  funds  to  be  disbursed  upon  this  object  were 
no  longer  controlled  by  Kuropatkin,  nor  by  the  Minister 
of  Finance,  but  solely  by  Alexeieff  and  Bczobra/.off. 

Kuropatkin  returned  in  a  state  of  alarm  from  his 
voyage  of  inspection  in  the  Far  East  with  the  full 
conviction  that  Japan,  knowing  the  imbroglio  created  by 
Alexeieff,  intended  war.  As  early  as  September,  1903, 
he  demanded  a  considerable  capital  from  the  Tsar  in 
order  to  make  preparations  for  the  campaign.  He  got 
nothing.  Yet  at  this  very  time  the  Alcxeicff-Plchvc 
group  was  draining  320  millions  of  roubles  (about 
;^32,cx)0,0O0)  from  the  reserves  of  gold  accumulated  by 
Witte  !  What  was  the  destination  of  these  sums,  seeing 
that  at  the  commencement  of  the  war  nothing  was 
ready .''  The  Tsar  still  told  Kuropatkin  peremptorily 
that  there  would  be  no  war,  at  the  very  moment  when 
Alexeieff  was  pushing  it  on  with  all  his  might,  and  at  the 


I90  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

same  time  inaugurating  the  theft  of  milliards  extorted 
from  the  Nation  in  order  to  keep  up  the  international 
credit  of  the  Empire. 

The  Impasse. 

The  outbreak  of  hostilities  proclaimed  a  day  of 
despair  for  the  Tsar,  of  triumph  for  the  Oligarchy. 
Kuropatkin  was  despatched  to  the  defeat  that  others 
had  prepared  by  diversion  of  the  war-funds.  The 
Oligarchy  reigned  supreme.  The  sole  blot  on  the 
picture  was  the  tenacity  of  Lamsdorff,  who  had  found 
a  powerful  advocate  in  Edward  VII.  Substantial 
difficulties  were  plotted  later  on  for  his  undoing  (capture 
of  English  vessels,  the  Hull  affair),  but  his  fall  had 
even  then  been  prepared  by  the  Oligarchy.  Caring 
more  for  money  than  glory,  they  had  in  their  dis- 
organisation of  Army  and  Navy,  checkmated  the 
"  patriotic  diversion."  The  people,  stupefied  at  first, 
became  furious  at  the  news  of  the  defeats  for  which 
they  were  starved  and  oppressed.  Russia,  for  the  rest, 
remained  isolated.  The  immorality  of  the  authors  of 
the  war  was  so  well  known  to  the  whole  world  that  the 
intrigues  on  which  they  embarked  with  the  object  of 
drawing  the  other  great  Powers  after  China,  into  the 
struggle,  only  provoked  international  hilarity.  And 
their  infatuation  was  further  illuminated  by  the  lightning 
shafts  hurled  by  Witte  from  his  ivory  tower  at  the 
criminals  in  their  extremity.  On  Feb.  17,  1904,  previous 
to  any  defeat,  he  expounded  Russia's  downward  course 
to  the  author. 

"  You  would  not  take  office  again  in  this  difficult 
situation  1  And  yet  you  are  considered  the  only 
one.  .  .  ." 


WITTE'S  REGIME  191 

"  Never !  never,  so  long  as  these  fools  arc  reigning  in 
Russia.  My  ideal  of  government  is  radically  different 
from  what  is  actually  being  carried  out,  internally  as 
well  as  externally." 

"This  is  Plehve's  regime.'" 

"  And  you  would  have  me  associate  myself  with  a 
system  like  that.  Look  at  this  war  ?  On  the  seas  we 
shall  never  obtain  any  advantage.  On  land,  perhaps  ;  at 
least  it  is  possible." 

"  In  France,  the  Manchurian  Question  is  regarded  as 
a  settled  thing." 

"  Settled  .?  How  so  }  Well  !  for  my  part,  it  is  not  at 
all.^' 

"  Why,  yes.  We  think  that  under  all  circumstances 
you  might  keep  Manchuria." 

"  In  the  first  place,  that  is  still  a  moot  point.  It  is 
probable  thatwc  shall  have  the  upper  hand  on  land.  In 
that  case  we  might  retain  possession  of  Manchuria  as 
before,  if  we  wished  to.  But  that  depends  neither  upon 
us  nor  upon  Japan." 

"  On  whom,  then  }  " 

"  Listen.  What,  in  the  last  resort,  will  be  the  result  of 
this  war  }  In  one  way  or  another,  we  shall  be  nicely 
plucked,  and  it  will  be  absolutely  impossible  for  us  to  go 
to  war  again  for  some  five  or  ten  years." 

"  With  your  rivals  in  the  Far  Fast  .-*  With  America  .-• 
England  }  " 

"  With  England,  matters  can  always  be  arranged. 
They  know  what  they  want.  Well!  If  all  the.se 
countries,  and  the  others  who  have  votes  in  the  Congress 
leave  us  Manchuria,  under  what  conditions  will  they 
do  it .? " 

"Probably  with  the  Open  Door." 

"Just  so.     But  then,  do  you  suppose  we  want  to  buikl 


192  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

up  and  support  a  magnificent  establishment,  in  order 
that  our  rivals  may  inhabit  it,  and  grow  rich  ?  " 

"  It  is  true  that  Russian  commerce  in  Manchuria  .  .  ." 

"  Ah !  you  see.  A  system  of  protection  alone  could 
enable  us  to  get  something  out  of  this  country,  and 
to  find  the  necessary  funds  for  its  administration. 
(Trans-Manchuria  represents  an  annual  deficit  of 
21  million  roubles,  and  the  administration  of  the 
country  costs  about  85,  which  amounts  to  nearly 
_;^  1 1,000,000.)" 

"  And  you  will  not  succeed  in  getting  your  Closed 
Door  .?  " 

"  Who  is  likely  to  back  us  up  .''  " 

*'  France." 

"  Certainly,  she  has  no  commerce.     But  the  rest  ?  " 

"  Germany .? " 

"  We  know  now  that  she  will  not  ;  or  only  at  the 
cost  of  compensations  that  would  weaken  us  in  Europe 
far  more  than  we  should  be  profited  out  there." 

"  By  commercial  treaties." 

"  And  other  things.     In  short,  we  shall  be  isolated." 

"  Then  what  will  you  do  ?  " 

"  No  one  asks.  But  they  will  do  it  all  the  same. 
It  will  be  a  hard  rub.  Do  you  suppose  that  France  will 
go  with  us,  if  we  risk  everything  in  order  to  keep  the 
country  ? " 

"  I  suppose  nothing  of  the  kind." 

"  Well,  that  has  always  been  my  own  opinion." 

"  Then  what  is  the  use  of  this  war  .-'  " 

"  What  can  you  expect  ?  '  They '  are  fools,  arch- 
fools  .  .  .  ignoramuses." 

Thus  the  ten  years'  reign  of  the  Oligarchy,  initiated 
and  organised  by  the  Moscow  Group,  has  culminated  by 
way  of   the  economic  drama   of   the   Witte   regime,  in 


WITTE'S  REGIME  193 

this  tragic  situation :  the  military  defeat  of  Tsardom, 
and  loss  of  its  military  prestige :  moral  defeat  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Nation ;  perpetual  famine  ;  growing  dis- 
content ;  destruction  of  "  Russian  wealth  "  ;  in  brief, 
military,  economic  and  moral  impotence,  before  the 
outside  world,  and  before  the  exasperated  people. 
Owing  to  this  fact,  the  internal  situation  in  Russia  has 
suffered  a  gradual  transformation  that  makes  the  fall  of 
the  autocratic,  or  rather  oligarchical  regime,  inevitable, 
whether  this  be  accomplished  by  a  progressive  de- 
composition, or  by  a  sudden  catastrophe. 

In  order  to  disentangle  this  truth,  and  to  show  the 
reaction  of  the  people  against  i\\\?,  regime,  it  is  important 
to  analyse  the  condition  of  the  Empire  at  the  moment 
of  Plehve's  death,  the  initial  point  of  the  Revolution, 
from  the  fourfold  point  of  view  of  the  principles  of 
bureaucratic  government  :  nationalism,  injustice,  im- 
poverishment, and  ignorance. 

How  have  these  four  principles  reacted  upon  the 
people  ^ 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   NATIONAL   AWAKENING 

It  is  evident  from  the  history  of  the  bureaucratic 
administration  as  sketched  above,  that  it  would  never  have 
been  able  to  consolidate  its  unlimited  power,  if  it  had 
been  confronted  with  other  organised  forces.  The  brief 
period  of  factitious  prosperity  under  Witte,  which  had 
little  by  little  created  two  new  forces,  the  capitalist 
bourgeoisie,  and  the  artisan  proletariat,  had  been  a  mortal 
danger  for  this  system.  And  the  general  sullen  dis- 
content, product  of  misery,  but  none  the  less  the  germ 
of  a  popular  consciousness,  was  no  less  threatening.  In 
face  of  these  perils,  the  primordial  principle  of  the 
Bureaucracy  could  only  be  its  constitution  in  a  compact 
block,  before  which  the  subjects  of  the  Tsar  should 
huddle  in  an  amorphous  crowd,  wherein  all  differences, 
social,  moral,  religious,  material,  and  above  all  national, 
would  be  swallowed  up.  The  last  were  obviously  the 
most  dangerous  ;  since  each  of  the  numerous  nation- 
alities that  had  been  reduced  by  war  or  treason  to 
submit  to  the  yoke  of  Tsardom,  might  from  one  day  to 
the  other  constitute  themselves  into  an  organised  force, 
ready  to  break  the  chains  of  slavery.  No  one  of  these 
nationalities  has,  in  fact,  accommodated  itself  to  its  fate  ; 
centuries  of  subjection  have  no  more  extinguished  the 
hatred  of  some  than  a  few  years  of  Tsardom  have  abolished 
the  autonomist  aspirations  of  others  ;   a  phenomenon 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      195 

which  passes  definite  judgment  upon  the  assimilatory 
capacities  of  the  Tsarian  system.  Under  these  conditions, 
the  Bureaucracy  has  constituted  itself,  from  the  outset  of 
its  career,  the  inexorable  advocate  of  the  "  purification," 
that  is,  the  Russification  of  the  whole  Empire. 

With  the  fall  of  the  aristocratic  n^ginie,  the  peril  of 
the  nationalities  had  assumed  greater  proportions.  The 
Nobles,  who  had  been  amenable  to  seduction  by  Tsardom 
in  virtue  of  its  favours,  places,  and  amenities,  had  lost 
their  influence  with  the  people.  They  no  longer  sufficed 
to  assure  the  tranquillity  of  Tsarism.  And  since  it 
proved  impossible  to  seduce  the  peoples,  be  they  Poles, 
Ruthenians,  Lithuanians,  Armenians,  Georgians,  Finns, 
or  Jews,  there  remained  but  one  expedient,  that  of 
crushing  them  and  effecting  their  Russification  by  force. 
Alexander  III.,  most  borne  of  all  the  Tsars,  at  once 
perceived  the  full  moral  grandeur  of  this  project.  Not 
having  the  slightest  comprehension  of  the  historical 
development  of  his  vast  Empire,  he  regarded  himself  in 
all  sincerity  as  the  Tsar  of  the  Mongol-Slavonic  tribe  of 
the  Greater  Russians,  and  the  exclusive  Head  of  the 
Orthodox  Church.  His  knowledge  of  history  ceased 
before  the  reign  of  Peter  the  Great,  and  his  policy 
readily  conformed  to  the  same  limitations,  the  more  so 
as  his  entourage  found  their  own  billet  there.  In 
practice,  this  theory  entailed  the  persecution  and  sup- 
pression of  every  nationality  except  that  of  Greater 
Russia,  and  the  persecution  of  all  independent  belief 
within  the  Orthodox  Official  Church.  The  poor  blind 
fool  really  believed  this  would  consolidate  his  own 
power  in  Russia,  simultaneously  with  his  prestige  in  the 
outside  world. 

The  procedure  was  simple,  and  not  unprofitable  to  the 
Bureaucracy,  who   found   innumerable  opportunities  of 

o  2 


196  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

blackmailing  the  more  fortunate  members  of  the  perse- 
cuted communities.  The  Governors  did  not  take  into 
consideration  that  their  methods  of  coercion  could  only 
result  in  despoiling  the  bloom  of  the  nationalities  and 
the  religions  that  were  to  be  suppressed.  What  could 
they  do  ?  To  despoil  the  communities  of  the  rights  and 
historical  privileges  that  had  been  guaranteed  them  by 
the  Tsar  himself  at  the  moment  of  subjection,  was  the 
first  measure  ;  this  was  possible  by  simple  perjury  on  the 
part  of  the  Tsar.  The  thing  had  been  done  long  ago 
for  certain  nationalities ;  the  Kingdom  of  Poland  had 
been  transformed  into  a  Russian  "  District  "  ;  Ruthenia, 
named  "  Little  Russia  "  by  its  Muscovite  Conqueror, 
had  been  annexed,  and  its  political  civilisation  degraded 
to  the  Russian  level  ;  Georgia  had  met  with  the  same 
fate.  Broken  treaties,  spoken  perjuries  :  these  were  the 
amiable  measures  that  Nicholas  was  pleased  to  repeat  for 
benefit  of  the  Finns  and  Armenians.  It  was  too  obvious 
that  such  a  "  Russification  "  could  but  increase  the  bitter- 
ness of  its  victims,  and  consequently  militate  against  the 
desired  object.  In  order  to  attack  the  vigour  of  the 
nation  yet  more  radically,  but  three  proceedings  were 
needful  :  to  forbid  the  national  languages,  and  replace 
them  by  Russian  ;  to  prevent  the  accumulation  of  capital, 
or  the  organisation  of  associations  destined  for  national 
defence,  and,  lastly,  to  compel  the  adherents  of  non- 
Russian  religions,  by  cavilling  restrictions  and  inferiority 
from  the  legal  point  of  view,  to  become  converts  to  Ortho- 
doxy. These  methods  were  everywhere  pushed  to 
extremity  with  unparalleled  savagery,  and  it  must  be 
confessed  with  no  result  other  than  .  .  .  the  national 
awakening  of  the  persecuted  races.  At  an  epoch  in 
which  the  whole  world  was  being  transformed  under 
the  dominion  of  that  "  national   principle "  which  was 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      197 

formulated  in  France  in  order  to  animate  the  Universe  ; 
at  an  epoch  when  Italy  and  Germ?.ny  were  being  created, 
Austria  and  Turkey  undone,  by  this  very  principle,  the 
Tsarian  folly  sought  to  eradicate  it  by  applying  to  these 
victims  precisely  the  same  proceedings  that  in  other 
countries  had  brought  it  into  being.  And  thus  by  a 
just  retribution,  political  conditions  that  were  to  imperil 
Tsardom  in  Greater  Russia  itself  were  created. 


Bureaucratic  Nationalism. 

The  Bureaucracy,  for  the  rest,  had  some  reason  to 
confound  the  nationalism  of  the  subjugated  peoples 
with  the  revolutionary  temper  in  general  :  the  two 
proceed  from  the  same  source,  and  their  manifestations 
are  often  identical.  The  difference  consists  solely  in  the 
fact  that  the  national  spirit  and  its  product,  insurrection, 
have  a  tendency  to  unite  all  social  classes,  whereas  the 
revolutionary  spirit  only  animates  the  classes  that  are 
the  most  oppressed  and  the  most  developed  from  the 
intellectual  point  of  view.  The  Russian  Bureaucracy, 
ignoring  the  existence  of  different  classes  besides  itself, 
could  only  identify  under  the  common  name  of  re- 
volutionary whatever  was  opposed  to  it.  Hence  it  could 
but  see  in  any  social  or  political  claim  the  work  of  the 
enemies  of  Greater  Russia,  that  is  of  foreigners.  And 
to  this  day,  its  repressive  action  is  in  accordance  with  this 
absurd  idea.  It  would  be  well  if  this  could  be  instilled 
into  the  Bureaucracy, 

On  July  18,  1904  (the  day  after  the  murder  of 
Bobrikoff,  the  Governor-General  of  Finland),  I'lehve 
explained  it  clearly  enough  in  the  following  extract  from 
a  conversation  to  which  he  had  invited  the  author. 

"  You   may  inscribe    this  abominable  deed    upon   the 


198  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

long  list  of  those  that  you  have  inspired,  abroad,  by 
your  Press  and  your  Revolutionary  Propaganda." 

"Your  Excellency  must  permit  mc  to  hold  the 
contrary  opinion,  and  to  protest.  The  foreign  Press 
knows  its  innocence.  We  cannot  be  terrorists,  because, 
with  us,  terrorism  has  no  object." 

"  We  have  evidence  that  all  these  conspiracies  are 
organised  abroad." 

"  Yes,  but  not  by  foreigners.  In  the  first  place,  it 
would  be  absolutely  impossible  to  provoke  any  consider- 
able movement  abroad  by  propaganda  alone.  The  roots 
of  the  evil  lie  deeper ;  they  are  local.  They  grow 
spontaneously.  It  is  not  we  who  are  responsible,  but 
the  soil  that  gave  them  birth." 

"  Yet  you  cannot  ignore  the  fact  that  this  soil  is  a 
foreign  soil.  It  is  the  aliens  alone  who  are  revolution- 
aries in  Russia  :  the  Swedes  of  Finland,  a  few  Poles, 
Armenians,  &c.,  and  above  all,  the  Jews." 

"  It  is,  indeed,  a  matter  for  surprise  that  they  should 
have  remained  strangers  in  their  own  country.  Is  the 
cause  not  political  discontent .''  " 

"  The  question  is  national,  not  political.  The  proof 
lies  in  the  animosity  that  prevails  between  Russians  and 
Jews,  and  often  degenerates  into  bloody  conflicts.  The 
struggle  is  national.  One  must  be  either  for  Russia,  or 
against  her.  .  ." 

Here,  the  principle  is  admirably  formulated.  Its 
application  has  been  developed  in  so  masterly  a  fashion 
that  by  its  aid  the  Bureaucracy,  crying  treason,  has 
enlisted  the  sympathies  even  of  the  nations  most 
imbued  with  the  principle  of  nationality.  At  the 
precise  moment  when  (in  1904)  not  only  the  oppressed 
nations,  but  Greater  Russia  herself,  rose  up  against 
the  Tsarian   regime,  the  latter  dared  pretend  that  it  was 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      199 

still  foreign  influences  that  were  attacking  Russia.  It 
had  the  audacity  to  publish  the  two  following  despatches 
in  the  official  organ  of  the  general  Staff: 

"  The  Staff  has  received  the  following  despatch  from 
Paris  !  '  The  emissaries  of  the  Secret  Service  in  London 
report  that  the  disturbances  in  the  Naval  Arsenals  of 
Petersburg,  Libau,  and  Sevastopol,  and  also  in  the 
Mines  of  Westphalia,  were  organised  by  Anglo-Japanese 
agents,  with  the  object  of  delaying  the  departure  of  the 
Squadrons  from  the  Baltic  and  Black  Sea.  Enormous 
sums  have  been  expended  on  the  Russian  Agitation.  .  .' 
Tell  the  truth  to  the  Russian  people.  Any  sympathy 
with  these  disturbances  is  a  crime,  and  treason.  In 
Paris,  the  Japanese  are  publicly  boasting  that  they  are 
the  authors  of  the  disturbances." 

"  The  Minister  of  War  has  received  the  following 
despatch  from  Paris :  '  Our  London  Correspondent 
cables  that  the  Japanese  Government  has  distributed 
18  million  roubles  to  the  revolutionaries,  liberals,  and 
Russian  workmen  for  the  organisation  of  the  agitation 
in  Russia.  It  was  intended  that  the  Naval  stores  should 
be  destroyed,  so  as  to  render  the  departure  of  the  Black 
Sea  and  Baltic  Squadrons  impossible,  to  annihilate 
Kuropatkin's  army  by  starvation,  and  to  force  the 
Government  to  concede  the  peace  which  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  Japan  on  the  verge  of  her  bankruptcy.' " 

Obviously  this  confusion  between  revolution  and 
foreign  enmity  was  not  spontaneous.  It  was  merely  a 
manoeuvre  to  ally  the  less  intelligent  of  the  Greater 
Russians  with  the  Bureaucracy.  But  it  is  interesting  in 
the  first  place  from  this  point  of  view,  and  further  as  a 
specimen  of  the  police  action  of  this  regimen.  These 
despatches  really  emanated  from  a  contaminated  office, 
the  Agetice  Latinc,  established  by  the  Russian  police  in 


200  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Paris,  the  prime  mover  in  which  is  an  agent  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Serge,  a  prime  blackmailer,  assassin, 
and  avowed  swindler,  named  Cherep-Spiridovitch,  who 
enjoys  an  amount  of  mundane  consideration  in  Paris  as 
the  President  of  a  "  Celtic  Slavonic  League."  Under 
his  direction  the  Bureaucracy  went  too  far  in  its  appli- 
cation of  the  "  national  principle,"  and  Count  Lams- 
dorff,  the  sole  survivor  of  its  adversaries,  was  able  to 
disavow  it  officially  in  the  following  note  : 

"  The  Agence  Laiine,  which  has  lately  attained  to  an 
unpleasant  notoriety,  has  just  furnished  another  example 
of  its  capabilities  in  the  way  of  senseless  calumny.  It 
has  had  the  impudence  to  spread  the  statement  that 
M.  Witte,  the  President  of  the  Council  of  Ministers,  is 
the  author  of  the  late  disturbances,  and  that  he  had  in 
consequence  been  compelled  to  take  refuge  abroad.  By 
a  report  like  this,  which  exposes  its  author  to  ridicule, 
the  Agence  Latine  has  condemned  itself.  It  would  be 
beneath  the  dignity  of  any  serious  Agency  to  contradict 
any  further  announcements  emanating  from  the  same 
source." 

Yet  the  mere  possibility  of  similar  incidents  shows 
how  the  Nationalism  of  Greater  Russia  has  juggled  with 
the  question  of  nationalities,  and  the  degree  in  which 
the  exasperation  of  the  Bureaucracy  against  the 
"  foreigners  "  denounced  by  Plehve  as  the  authors  of  the 
revolutionary  movement  has  gradually  swelled.  How 
far  have  they  been  so  in  reality  .'' 

The  Finlanders. 

The  little  nation  that  inhabits  the  "  Lake  Country," 
itself  composed  of  two  essentially  different  peoples,  the 
Finns  and  their  ancient  tyrants,  the  Swedes,  has  in  reality 


thp:  national  awakening    201 

held  entirely  apart  from  the  Russian  Crisis.  The 
thoroughly  occidental  character  of  its  civilisation  has 
created  an  abyss  between  it  and  the  remainder  of  the 
Tsar's  subjects,  and  if  it  stands  as  a  victim  of  Tsardom 
in  a  capital  degree,  this  is  thanks  to  its  more  intimate 
relations  with  the  West.  It  has  above  all  had  the  merit 
of  instructing  the  European  Public,  by  certain  salient 
examples,  as  to  the  character  of  the  Russian  Adminis- 
tration. In  reality,  however,  its  lot  is  paradisaical  as 
compared  with  that  of  its  companions  in  misfortune. 

Since  the  conquest  of  the  country  by  Alexander  I., 
the  Finns  had  enjoyed  a  constitutional  regime,  a 
monetary  and  customs  system,  an  official  language,  and 
a  non-Russian  military  regimen.  These  privileges  were 
brutally  torn  away  from  them  by  Nicholas  II.,  notwith- 
standing his  oath  to  respect  the  Finnish  Constitution. 
The  reasons  that  induced  the  Tsar  to  rupture  such  a 
solemn  engagement  differ  from  those  that  prevailed  in 
the  crushing  of  the  other  nationalities.  Along  with 
certain  purely  anecdotal  facts,  it  is  less  the  despotism  of 
Russian  Bureaucracy  than  a  vague  notion  of  external 
policy  that  has  involved  the  misfortunes  of  Finland. 
The  country,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  alien  to  the  whole  of 
the  rest  of  Russia  ;  the  Tsardom  which  there  exercises 
its  authority  solely  in  virtue  of  "personal  union"  saw 
Russia  separated  from  the  Baltic  by  a  foreign  nation. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  civilisation,  this  country  forms 
part  of  the  Scandinavian  Group  ;  and  it  is  this  group 
that  blocks  Russia's  free  outlet  to  the  Atlantic.  It  has 
invariably  been  this  obsession  of  the  Free  Ocean  that 
has  drawn  the  Tsar  into  the  fatal  course  of  his  policy. 
While  in  the  far  Norwegian  North  the  saturnine  emis- 
saries of  Russia  endeavoured  by  their  intrigues  to  cir- 
cumvent the  simple  Norwegian   fishermen,   Russia  was 


202  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

free  to  act  with  all  her  immense  and  brutal  force 
against  unprotected  Finland. 

Properly  speaking,  the  "  Russification "  of  Finland 
has  been  a  simple  essay  in  territorial  conquest ;  and  the 
measures  the  Finns  complain  of  are  those  of  an  invader 
who  seeks  to  consolidate  his  power  in  a  conquered  land. 
The  Russian  Bureaucracy  itself  has  had  no  other  con- 
ception of  its  role,  and  truth  to  say  the  national  opposi- 
tion of  the  Finns  has  followed  it  in  the  same  sense. 

The  Governor-General  Bobrikoff,  Plehve's  direct 
agent,  who  had  retained  the  post  of  Secretary  of 
State  for  Financial  Affairs  in  Finland,  along  with  the 
Russian  Ministry  of  the  Interior,  expressed  this  same 
opinion  only  twenty-four  hours  before  his  violent  death. 
On  that  day  he  was  interrogating  a  Russian  student  as 
to  the  result  of  a  journey  which  the  latter  had  just 
accomplished  for  purposes  of  study  in  the  country. 
Bobrikoff  began  by  congratulating  him  on  "having 
returned  alive  from  this  expedition  into  a  foreign  and 
inimical  country."  "Then  you  have  now  seen,"  he 
added,  "  as  I  forewarned  you,  that  it  is  not  merely  the 
Swedish  aristocracy  who  are  hostile  to  us "  !  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Bobrikoff  had  at  the  outset  of  this 
journey  given  the  student,  with  whom  he  was  personally 
acquainted,  the  following  advice  :  "  Be  careful !  Nine- 
tenths  of  Finland  are  rather  English  than  Russian. 
Visit  the  towns  and  country  districts.  Address  your- 
self to  the  few  Russians  who  are  established  there,  and 
who  will  give  you  better  information  than  I  can.  They 
will  all  tell  you  that  they  are  surrounded  by  general 
hatred."  Bobrikoff  looked  upon  himself  as  a  proconsul 
in  a  newly-conquered  country.  The  "  Russifying " 
measures  he  undertook  show  this  as  well  as  his  words  : 
the  application  of  Russian  military  law,  or  rather  the 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      203 

incorporation  of  conscripts  in  Russian  regiments  ;  the 
exile  of  persons  noted  for  their  patriotism  ;  lastly,  an 
infinitely  suggestive  matter,  the  deportation  of  the  most 
"  dangerous  "  of  the  Finnish  patriots  to  the  far  depths  of 
Russia. 

Accordingly,  the  resistance  of  the  Finns  has  con- 
stantly preserved  its  character  of  sullen  opposition  of  a 
conquered  country  to  its  conquerors.  Finland  has  been 
reduced  to  passive  resistance,  that  is  to  the  non-execu- 
tion of  Russifying  measures.  The  Finns  have  been 
singularly  indifferent  to  the  question  of  Tsardom  in 
Russia.  Highly  conservative,  highly  opiniatre,  above  all 
highly  "  virtuous "  in  the  protestant  sense,  they  have 
constantly  taken  their  stand  upon  their  historical 
rights,  a  pure  fiction  in  a  political  world  where  the  law 
is  to  the  strong  exclusively.  And  what  they  have 
claimed  continuously,  is  not  the  stamping  out  of  Tsar- 
dom, nor  even  the  practical  reforms  which  would  politi- 
cally be  of  the  greatest  importance  to  them,  but  solely 
the  restitution  of  the  rights  guaranteed  them  by 
Alexander  I. 

Needless  to  say,  this  contest  of  discussions  as  to  the 
rights  of  the  State  has  remained  absolutely  sterile.  The 
several  acts  of  isolated  exasperation  by  which  it  has  been 
interrupted,  the  murders  of  Bobrikoff  and  of  Johannsen 
(the  Secretary  of  the  Finnish  Senate),  are  deeds  of 
patriotic  vengeance,  the  first  against  the  arbitrary  execu- 
tive of  the  conquering  alien,  the  second  against  the 
traitor  who  made  common  cause  with  the  alien  against 
his  country.  This  situation  was  so  obvious  that  even 
the  obtuse  intellect  of  the  Russian  bureaucrats  did  not 
fail  to  recognise  it,  as  is  ])rovcd  by  the — thoroughly 
Russian — adventures  that  befell  the  father  of  Bobrik(jffs 
murderer,  General  Schaumann. 


204  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

The  son  having  committed  suicide,  the  unfortunate 
father  was  compelled  to  appear  as  a  hostage  for  Finland 
in  Russia.  He  was  arrested  and  transported  to  Russia, 
to  the  Fortress  of  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul  in  Petersburg. 
On  what  pretext  ?  First,  for  complicity  in  the  murder, 
not  for  conspiracy  against  the  safety  of  the  State.  An 
action  was  instituted  against  him  by  the  police,  in  formal 
contradiction  to  the  law  which  the  Minister  of  Justice, 
Muravieff  himself,  had  instituted  a  month  before,  abso- 
lutely prohibiting  these  secret  inquisitions.  Possibly 
they  hoped  the  ol9  man  would  give  up  the  ghost  in  the 
horrible  subterranean  dungeons  of  Petersburg.  Since 
this  slow  assassination  did  not  succeed,  Muravieff  at- 
tempted to  get  his  innocent  victim  condemned  on  other 
grounds  than  his  pretended  complicity  in  his  son's 
action. 

Schaumann  was  re-transferred  from  the  cells  of  the 
Peter-Paul  Fortress  to  the  prison  of  Abo  in  Finland. 
There  he  was  condemned  in  common  form  ;  not,  as 
Muravieff  had  announced,  by  the  Disciplinary  Council 
of  the  University  of  Helsingfors,  but  by  a  second-rate 
tribunal  acting  upon  bye-laws  that  had  no  moral  force, 
something  like  a  court-martial.  And  of  what  was  he 
accused  at  the  end  of  it  all .?  Of  political  conspiracy? 
Of  having  incited  his  son  to  his  deed  of  terrorism  .-'  Not 
at  all !  Muravieff  himself  recoiled  from  such  an  inept 
and  monstrous  allegation.  What  then  ?  Eureka !  A 
police-officer  searching  Schaumann's  lodging  had  come 
on  a  sheet  of  paper  upon  which  the  criminal  had  noted 
some  proposed  measures  for  the  reorganisation  of — the 
Terrorists  ? — no,  the  Rifle  Associations  !  And  note  that 
these  associations  are  expressly  authorised  by  the 
Government.  Moreover,  the  Tsar  himself  is  patron  of 
them  ! 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      205 

The  trial  was  so  ridiculous  that  they  dared  not  prose- 
cute it  to  the  end  :  Schaumann  was  liberated,  and  the 
debates  were  "  postponed  to  a  future  date." 

This  curious  affair  gives  the  exact  gauge  of  the  con- 
test between  Tsardom  and  Finland.  Russia  desires  to 
act  administratively  and  politically  there  as  she  does  at 
home.  And  what  she  dreads  is  not  revolution,  but  the 
absurdity  of  impotence.  Hence  her  principal  weapon  is 
the  introduction  of  administrative  measures  over  the 
heads  of  the  Finnish  authorities,  just  as  that  of  the  Fin- 
landers  is  to  disregard  them.  A  specimen  of  these 
amenities  was  provided  in  a  manifesto  by  the  Grace  of 
Nicholas,  promulgated  on  the  occasion  of  the  birth  of 
the  Tsarevitch. 

For  the  benefit  of  the  "  non-proprietary  Finns  "  (read, 
the  Russian  labourers  introduced  into  Finland),  the  Tsar 
condescended  arbitrarily  to  levy  ;!^i  20,000  on  the  Budget 
of  Finland,  which  was  thus  employed  against  the  in- 
terest of  the  country,  to  whose  Constitution  he  had, 
nevertheless,  sworn  his  word  of  honour.  Those  who  were 
liable  made  respectful  protest,  and  expressed  the  hope 
that  they  would  not  often  have  to  incur  such  favours. 
And  that  ended  the  matter ! 

The  "  remission  of  unpaid  taxes  "  was  ordained  at  the 
same  time.  This  did  not  cost  Russia  a  halfpenny,  but 
occasioned  a  profound  disturbance  of  the  equilibrium  of 
the  Finnish  Budget.  Since  the  Grand  Duchy  receives  no 
subsidies  from  Russia,  it  was  forced  to  plug  the  hole 
caused  by  the  Grace  of  the  Tsar  by  .  .  .  levying  higher 
taxes  ! 

The  climax,  however,  was  that  at  the  same  hour 
at  which  these  favours  were  put  forth  by  edict, 
another  Ukase  was  promulgated  which  stipulated 
for    the    total    suppression    of    the    military    district   of 


2o6  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Finland,  which  in  future  was  to  form  part  of  the  district 
of  S.  Petersburg. 

The  mode  by  which  Tsardom  has  set  its  system 
of  Russification  going  in  Finland,  as  well  as  the 
methods  of  resistance  adopted  by  the  victims  of  the 
system,  has  caused  the  national  question  concerning 
this  people  to  assume  a  position  of  its  own.  And  the 
Russian  Bureaucracy  errs  in  accusing  Finland  of  organ- 
ising the  overthrow  of  its  Administration.  This  nation, 
which  might  have  played  a  glorious  part  in  the  historical 
developments  of  the  day,  has  done  absolutely  nothing  to 
secure  this.  Rabid  theory  has  impelled  her  rather  than 
the  brutality  of  despotism.  She  has  no  place  in  the 
ensemble  of  peoples  or  social  classes  who  have  taken 
action  against  the  most  oppressive  force  in  the  world. 
The  Russians  themselves  have  been  amazed  at  her  abso- 
lute inaction  at  an  epoch  when  she  might,  if  only  by 
utilising  her  interminable  shores  for  contraband  of  arms, 
have  played  an  important  part  in  the  assault  upon  Tsar- 
dom. She  has  only  managed  to  protest,  relying  upon 
others.  And  if  one  day  she  obtains  the  quashed  "  his- 
torical rights  "  that  she  demands,  it  will  be  by  grace  of 
those  who  in  her  place  would  have  known  how  to 
dictate  the  will  of  the  modern  temper  to  Russian  des- 
potism. The  Finlanders  are  the  flies  on  the  wheel  of  the 
Russian  Revolution. 

The  Poles. 

The  same  thing  cannot  be  said  of  any  other  nationality 
that  is  subject  to  the  Tsar.  At  most  there  may  exist  in 
one  or  another  a  corrupt  class  which  has  made  its  peace 
with  the  great  Russian  Administration  in  order  to  enjoy 
special  privileges,  or  the  better  to  exploit  the  crowds  it 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      207 

pretends  to  guide.  Such  is  notably  the  case  with  the 
Poles.  The  heartrending  history  of  this  nation,  doubt- 
less the  best  endowed  of  all  the  Sla\'s,  is  too  well  known 
to  make  the  recapitulation  of  it  desirable. 

The  life  of  Russian  Poland  is  entirely  summed  up  in 
its  constantly  repeated  attempts  at  insurrection,  as  pro- 
voked by  the  more  and  more  intolerable  obstacles  that 
are  brought  to  bear  on  Polish  civilisation,  with  the  object 
of  degrading  it  little  by  little  to  the  level  of  Muscovite 
barbarism.  The  prohibition  of  the  Polish  language  in 
the  schools  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  engines  of  this 
system.  The  vexations  endured  by  Catholicism  for  the 
benefit  of  Orthodoxy  are  not  less  "  Russificatory "; 
thus — no  Orthodox  person  of  either  sex  may  become 
Catholic,  that  is,  a  Pole  (on  the  occasion  of  a  marriage, 
for  in.stance)  and  all  the  children  of  a  mixed  marriage 
become  Orthodox,  the  gravest  penalties  being  promul- 
gated against  any  infraction  of  the  numerous  stipulations 
attaching  to  this  matter.  The  fact  that  the  words,  polski 
and  rousski  do  not  in  the  least  signify  Pole  and  Russian 
among  the  people,  but  Catlwlic  and  Orthodox,  speaks  for 
the  importance  of  these  questions.  A  third  means  of 
Russification  is  to  exclude  all  Poles  from  the  official 
service,  and  even  from  employment  in  the  establishments 
controlled  by  the  State  in  Poland,  offering  them,  on  the 
other  hand,  congenial  appointments  in  the  far  depths  of 
Russia,  in  Siberia,  and  in  Central  Asia,  where  they 
perforce  become  Russified,  while  innumerable  Greater 
Russians  hold  all  the  official  and  non-official  posts  in 
Poland.  F"or  the  rest  the  I'olish  conscri[)ts  are  strictly 
enregimented  in  Russia,  and  vice  7'ersd,  while  bureau- 
cratic action,  arbitrary  executive,  is  exercised  in  Poland 
even  more  coolly  than  in  Russia. 

This  is  incontestably  necessary  from  the  point  of  view 


2o8  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

of  Tsardom.  The  progressive  growth  of  oppression  is, 
moreover,  the  better  explained  since  Poland  is  the  only 
part  of  the  Muscovite  Empire  in  which  Witte's  economic 
system  has  borne  fruit,  fruit  which  is  due  to  the 
superiority  of  the  material  and  intellectual  civilisation  ol 
the  Poles,  the  greater  capacities  of  the  industrial  workers 
and  patrons,  the  larger  purchasing  power  of  the  popula- 
tion, and,  lastly,  the  vicinity  of  civilised  countries. 
Towns  like  Lodz  have  from  a  mere  nothing  become 
immense  and  wealthy  industrial  centres  ;  economic  life 
has  been  intensified  there;  an  entire  district  of  Poland 
has  assumed  the  aspect  of  a  modern  country,  not  without 
an  exhibition  of  economic  force  that  is  regarded  as 
alarming  by  the  Russian  Bureaucracy  (it  should  be 
stated  that  this  impetus  is  due  in  part  to  the  Jews,  who, 
nevertheless,  do  not  constitute  a  distinct  people  in  this 
part  of  the  country,  as  in  Lithuania  and  the  south-west 
of  Russia,  but  are  rather  a  variant  of  the  Pole,  like  the 
Jews  of  Germany,  France,  or  England).  The  Russifi- 
catory  pressure  of  the  Bureaucracy  in  face  of  this  danger 
could  but  be  screwed  up  tighter,  to  which  the  Poles 
retorted  naturally  by  cherishing  the  idea  of  national 
enfranchisement  more  dearly  than  ever.  They  organised 
powerful  national  organisations,  with  the  greater  ease 
since  a  portion  of  the  nation,  beyond  the  German  and 
Austrian  frontiers,  were  already  in  enjoyment  of  greater 
liberty  of  movement.  The  crowds  of  industrial  workers — 
representing  an  infinitely  larger  percentage  of  the 
population  than  is  the  case  in  Russia— adopted  Socialist 
theories,  with  the  modification  that  the  autonomy  of 
Poland  was  to  be  secured  along  with  class  requirement?, 
or  rather  as  a  prior  requisition.  The  peasants,  on  their 
side,  could  not,  as  was  the  case  in  Russia,  afford  the 
support  of  stupid  inertia  to  the  usurping  Tsardom  ;  they 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      209 

do  not  recognise  the  Tsar,  and  suffer  his  Bureaucracy 
with  a  merely  relative  resignation.  The  bourgeois  arc 
even  less  reconciled  to  Russia.  They  have  States  too 
near  their  doors  in  which  their  own  class  is  dominant. 
They  are  too  subject  also  to  annoyance  and  blackmailing 
from  the  Bureaucracy,  which  treats  them  for  the  rest 
as  virtual  revolutionaries.  And  their  relatively  high 
intellectual  culture  inculcates  principles,  deriving  from 
the  history  of  their  country,  which,  with  certain  rare 
exceptions,  forbid  them  to  renounce  the  "natural  rights  ' 
of  their  nationality.  All,  however,  are  clever  enough  not 
to  take  their  stand  upon  these  rights,  which  are  only  a 
faqon  de  parler ;  action  alone,  struggle,  consjjiracy, 
insurrection,  revolution,  appears  to  them  to  be  useful. 
Since  the  power  of  Tsardorn  has  been  weakened  by  the 
economic  crisis,  on  to  which  the  Asiatic  crisis  has  been 
grafted,  this  action  has  been  exercised  very  freely.  The 
recoil  from  the  Tsarian  regime  has  assumed  a  palpable 
form  since  the  commencement  of  the  Manchurian  War. 

The  direct  insurrection  against  the  Russian  Adminis- 
tration exploded,  thanks  to  the  Authorities  them- 
selves, who  at  that  time  authorised  a  collective  action, 
which  until  then  had  been  absolutely  forbidden  as 
"  conspiracy,"  with  the  object  of  relieving  the  misery  of 
the  people.  At  Lodz,  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
workmen  were  out  of  employment  from  June,  1904, 
nearly  all  being  Socialists,  all  at  any  rate  anti-Tsarists, 
The  Government  in  alarm  promised  commandos  and 
other  alms  that  never  arrived.  Then  of  a  sudden  a  vast 
"  Out-of-\Vork  Committee  "  was  organised  among  the 
well-to-do  Boles.  In  face  of  the  awful  misery,  the 
Government  dared  not  dissolve  it.  It  was,  therefore, 
authorised  after  the  event,  and  presided  over  by  a 
police-officer  named  Kharasonovski,  supported  by  a  few 


2IO  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

functionaries.  These  agents,  instead  of  "watching  the 
action  of  the  Committee  from  the  political  point  of 
view  "  preferred — like  all  the  rest  of  their  colleagues — 
to  exercise  a  little  profitable  blackmail.  The  Committee 
gladly  stopped  their  ears  with  a  few  bank-notes,  and 
henceforward  distributed  the  "  succour  "  it  had  collected 
without  hindrance :  it  organised  a  vast,  anti-tsarist 
campaign,  and  Tsardom  well-informed,  but  already 
impotent,  had  to  let  it  be.  The  refusal  to  mobilise,  the 
general  strikes  of  1905,  the  battles  in  the  streets,  were 
the  result. 

Poland  contributed  thus  efficaciously  to  create  an 
inextricable  situation  for  Tsardom.  Poland,  but  not, 
alas  !  those  who  formerly  pretended  to  be  its  sole  repre- 
sentatives. The  Polish  Nobility,  the  shlakhta,  a  caste, 
degenerate  for  many  centuries,  which  gave  the  name  of 
"  Republic  of  Poland  "  to  the  most  barbarous  Oligarchy  ; 
which,  by  its  stupidity,  its  subjection  to  the  clergy,  its 
egoism  and  its  insolence,  rendered  the  division  of 
Poland  necessary  as  a  measure  of  international  hygiene  ; 
and  which  still  survives  brilliantly  as  the  valets  of  the 
Hohenzollerns,  Hapsburgs,  and  Holsteins ;  this  class 
was  to  crown  its  work  by  committing  the  direst  treason 
against  the  nation,  which  had  raised  herself  in  spite  of 
them,  morally  and  materially,  from  the  slough  into 
which  it  had  thrust  her  ;  it  wishes  to  see  Poland  in 
servitude,  as  she  is  to-day. 

This  class,  it  is  true,  has  never  lent  a  hand  to  anything 
but  the  enslavement  of  the  crowd,  the  exploiting  of  the 
artisan  masses.  It  has  systematically  hindered  the 
development  of  instruction,  the  impetus  of  knowledge, 
in  every  department  over  which  it  dominates.  Through- 
out the  sphere  of  its  influence,  the  oppression  of  alien 
nationalities    tyrannises    under    conditions    which    far 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      211 

surpass  the  measures  of  Russification  contemplated  by 
Tsardom.  In  Galicia,  the  Polish  squireen  rules  as 
autocrat,  and  holds  two  million  Ruthenians  as  his  serfs. 
Never  were  people  oppressed  in  the  name  of  the 
Russian  Government,  as  are  the  Jews  and  Lithuanians 
in  Poland,  where  there  is  but  a  fraction  of  its  authority. 

This  class  is  the  purest  example  of  material  cynical 
egoism,  enwrapt  in  a  so-called  aristocratic  dignity. 
They  have  made  admirable  arrangements  for  themselves 
with  each  new  master.  Their  principles,  their  national 
ideas,  their  political  claims,  everything  capitulated  on 
the  sole  condition  that  they  were  not  made  to  live  as 
equals  with  the  people,  of  whom  they  were  the  "jewels," 
and  that  their  ancient  and  patriarchal  privilege  of  living 
a  merry  life  while  they  trampled  on  the  rights  of  the 
crowd  should  be  respected.  In  Russia  they  have 
solicited  all  the  fat  places.  Siberia  swarms  with  them. 
Permission  to  appear  at  Court,  to  exhibit  their  uniforms 
in  the  ball-rooms  of  official  circles,  the  delight  of  seeing 
themselves  included  in  "  high  society  "  in  Russia,  has 
transformed  the  conqueror  into  a  well-beloved  ally  in 
their  estimation. 

The  "  National  League,"  which  still  passes,  even  in 
Europe,  for  the  principal  organisation  of  Poland,  is  the 
instrument  of  this  degenerate  caste.  If  it  has  raised  the 
platonic  spectre  of  national  claims  from  time  to  time, 
this  is  solely  because  it  is  aware  that  it  will  otherwise 
make  too  poor  an  appearance  before  the  eyes  of  the 
civilised  world.  Its  real  aims  are  apparent  from  the 
course  of  events  since  1903.  It  excrci.ses  a  material 
blackmailing,  taking  payment  in  places  and  revenues 
for  its  services  as  police-spies,  fighting  above  all  side  by 
side  with  the  autocracy  against  the  people,  which  desires 
to  be  quit  of  it,  even  more  than  of  Tsardum. 

1'  2 


212  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

When  the  whole  Russian  Empire  rises  up  and  formu- 
lates its  aims,  the  nobles  of  Poland  abandon  their  own 
people.  The  "  National  League  "  has  not  even  breathed 
a  word  of  the  autonomy  which,  according  to  its  pro- 
gramme, is  its  raison  d'etre.  It  was  left  for  the  Polish 
Socialists,  the  "  internationalists,"  to  invoke  it.  The  sole 
requirement  of  the  League  was  the  reintroduction  of 
the  Polish  language  into  the  schools.  And  why  .-• 
Because  Russian  Tsarism  is  its  rival ;  because  the  crowd 
recognises  the  authority  of  the  Shlakhta  less  under  the 
constant  oppression  from  Russia  ;  because,  by  means  of 
instruction  in  the  Polish  tongue,  the  League  can  better 
consolidate  its  own  authority,  and  back  up  Catholicism, 
its  principal  instrument  of  oppression. 

With  November,  1904,  the  Polish  nobles  declared 
traitor  all  who  participated  in  the  Liberative  Move- 
ment. In  December  they  published  a  whole  series  of 
disgraceful  articles,  declaring  that  the  Movement  was 
financed  by  foreign  contribution.  Even  the  reactionary 
Press  in  Russia  was  scandalised  by  this  accusation. 
Thereupon  a  new  manifesto  was  issued  to  the  Polish 
people.  The  reservists  were  forbidden  to  let  themselves 
be  enregimented.  Only,  only  .  .  .  this  heroic  act  of 
revolution  was  fulfilled  on  December  20th,  a  fortnight 
after  the  date  at  which  the  reservists  had  to  present 
themselves.  .  .  . 

The  activity  of  these  traitors  has  been  sterile.  The 
Polish  nation  is  the  advance  guard  of  the  anti-tsarist 
revolution,  and  will  probably  remain  so.  Here,  in  fact, 
Plehve  was  right  in  his  opinion  .  .  .  the  revolutionary 
question  is  a  national  question,  and  in  order  to  resolve  the 
one,  it  would  be  necessary  to  suppress  the  other.  But 
that  nation  cannot  be  suppressed,  which,  more  than  ever, 
has  the  will  to  live. 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      213 


Germans  of  the  Baltic  Provinces,  Esthonians, 

LivoNiANS,  Letts,  Lithuanians, 

White  Russians 

The  countries  that  separate  Poland  from  S.  Peters- 
burg are  inhabited  by  several  nationalities  which  all  have 
a  crow  to  pluck  with  Tsardom.  The  most  apathetic, 
although  the  most  numerous,  are  the  White  Russians, 
who  arc  settled  in  the  saddest  tracts  of  Russia,  entirely 
covered  with  swamps  and  with  immense  forests.  In 
Europe  they  are  only  known  by  their  songs  and  their 
language ;  they  are  so  arriars,  so  solidly  attached  to 
the  Great  Russians,  that  they  hardly  count  as  nation- 
alities. They  could  only  participate  in  a  general  peasant 
outbreak. 

The  Esthonians  and  Livonians,  of  Finnish  extraction, 
were  subjugated  by  the  Teutonic  Knights.  The  Ger- 
mans dominated  their  country  for  centuries,  its  civilisa- 
tion being  absolutely  German — down  to  S.  Petersburg 
itself,  which  is  situated  in  the  ancient  province  of  Inger- 
manland.  Tsarism  at  the  outset  played  off  one  against 
the  other,  in  order  to  russify  them  when  they  were  split 
up. 

The  Letts,  who  with  the  Lithuanians  constitute  a 
special  race,  belong  to  the  same  group,  Russification, 
identical  with  that  of  Poland,  has  only  succeeded  here 
in  combining  the  weak  together.  This  was  essentially 
the  work  of  the  Governor-General  Wahl,  famous  for 
having,  like  a  new  De  Sadc,  caused  the  young  girls  to 
be  flogged  who  were  taking  part  in  a  theatrical  perform- 
ance during  which  revolutionary  proclamations  were 
scattered  in  the  theatre.  After  escaping  death  from  the 
revolver  of  the  brother  of  one  of  his  victims,  this  shady 


214  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

supporter  of  Plehve  literally,  by  his  oppressive  measures, 
gave  an  impetus  to  revolutionary  socialism.  And  his 
successor  Sviatopolsk-Mirski  (at  a  later  time  the  Liberal 
and  unfortunate  Minister)  curbed  it  so  successfully  that 
the  five  national  socialist  parties,  Lett,  German,  White 
Russian,  Livonian  and  Jew,  fused  to  constitute  the 
kernel  of  the  revolutionary  movement  in  these  coun- 
tries. 

The  Lithuanians,  who  were  a  glorious  Empire  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  were  subjected  by  the  Teutonic  Knights, 
by  Poland,  and  subsequently  by  Russia.  Like  their 
brothers  in  misery,  they  desired  free  exercise  of  their 
language,  and  liberty  of  action.  They  do  not  even 
stand  out  for  national  rights.  But  their  irreconcilable 
enemies  are  Tsardom  and  the  Polish  Shlakhta. 


Georgians,  Armenians,  Tribes  of  the 
Caucasus. 

Nor  have  the  numerous  tribes  that  inhabit  the 
Caucasus  and  Trans-Caucasia  ever  been  reconciled  to 
the  Russian  conqueror.  But  whereas  the  little  tribes  of 
the  Caucasus  are  too  weak  and  too  uncivilised  to  serve 
for  aught  except  a  makeweight  in  the  general  insurrec- 
tion, the  two  principal  nations,  the  Georgians  and  the 
Armenians,  constitute  a  very  important  force  in  the  anti- 
tsarist  movement. 

The  former,  under  the  epileptic  Tsar  Paul  I.,  suffered 
precisely  the  same  fate  as  the  Finlanders  under  his 
worthy  successor  :  rupture  of  a  reciprocal  treaty,  perjury 
on  the  part  of  the  Tsar,  transformation  of  a  country 
associated  with  Russia  into  a  simple  province,  after 
disarmament  obtained  by  ruse.     Georgia,  which  extends 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      215 

from  Tiflis  to  the  Black  Sea,  has  known  all  the  morti- 
fications of  Finland  with  a  hundred-fold  intensity.  She 
has  suffered  even  unto  Babylonian  methods.  The 
Georgians  were  deported  en  masse,  and  no  less  involun- 
tary immigrants  of  the  conquering  race  were  substituted 
for  them.  Like  Finland  she  has  never  ceased  to  invoke 
her  historical  rights,  but  she  has  not  attached  an  impos- 
sible importance  to  them.  She  has  had  recourse  to  the 
only  weapon  possible :  revolt.  And  she  is  prepared  for 
the  general  insurrection  on  the  day  when  the  other 
nationalties  combine. 

The  Armenians,  whose  fate  so  closely  resembles  that 
of  Poland,  have  acted  no  otherwise.  Divided  between 
Turkey,  Russia,  and  Persia,  they  are  considered  by  the 
two  former  to  be  extremely  dangerous  to  the  "  esta- 
blished order,"  on  account  of  their  superior  civilisation. 
This  centres  in  two  elements  :  the  National  Church  of 
Armenia,  and  a  remarkable  talent  for  commerce.  Both 
spiritual  force  and  economic  force  have  been  attacked 
by  Russia  and  Turkey  in  two  orders  of  measures,  all 
too  frequently  exercised  side  by  side.  The  despots  of 
Constantinople  and  of  Petersburg  have  sought  in  coali- 
tion to  destroy  their  church  and  to  annihilate  their  very 
people  in  a  torrent  of  blood.  The  martyrology  of  the 
Armenians  is  so  well  known  that  there  is  no  need  to 
recall  it,  in  order  to  understand  their  exasperated  resist- 
ance, as  well  as  their  revolutionary  action.  If  this  is 
directed  even  more  willingly  against  the  Tsar  than 
against  the  Sultan,  it  is  because  the  fall  of  Tsardom 
would  reduce  the  Sultan  himself  to  impotence.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Russian  tyranny,  if  somewhat  less 
sanguinary,  taps  the  national  life  of  Armenia  nearer  to 
its  sources.  Since  the  spiritual  centre  of  the  nation  is 
on  Russian  territory,  at    the  Convent  of  Etchmiadzin, 


2i6  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

it  was  for  the  Russian  Bureaucracy  to  take  in  hand 
the  destruction  of  the  Armenian  Idea,  after  it  had 
failed  in  its  design  of  exterminating  the  entire  nation  by 
the  hand  of  Turkey.  The  celebrated  declaration  of 
Prince  Lobanoff-Rostovski,  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  before  Muravieff:  "We  want  Armenia,  but 
without  the  Armenians,"  is  characteristic  of  the  whole 
Tsarian  policy  in  this  country.  Plehve  believed  that  l;e 
was  striking  a  decisive  blow  when  he  confiscated  the 
possessions  of  the  Armenian  Church  in  1903.  He 
deceived  himself  This  deed  was  but  a  vulgar  theft 
by  force  of  arms,  since  the  central  treasure  of  the 
Church  at  Etchmiadzin  did  not  belong  to  the  Russian 
Armenians.  The  Catholicos  Mkrditch,  who  resided  at 
Etchmiadzin,  accordingly  set  the  example  of  haughty 
resistance:  on  September  18,  1903,  he  received  the 
Russian  functionaries  who  were  told  off  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  valuables  deposited  at  the  Central  Convent 
of  the  Armenian  Church.  He  pointed  out  to  them  that 
the  valuables  were  not  Russian,  but  represented  deposits 
from  the  Armenians  of  Persia,  India,  Turkey,  Holland, 
Austria,  and  America.  '''  Your  Government,"  he  added, 
"  has  only  offered  the  decorations  I  wear  ;  take  them 
back,  I  want  none  of  them." 

From  this  moment  the  Insurrection  existed  in  a  latent 
state,  blazing  up  from  time  to  time  in  startling  out- 
breaks and  local  revolts  ;  high  functionaries  were  killed 
off  by  the  dozen  ;  Galitzin,  the  Governor-General,  who 
even  surpassed  the  intentions  of  Plehve,  hardly  escaped 
with  his  life.  Tsarism  in  its  turn  became  exasperated. 
The  organisation  of  the  Church  of  Armenia  was  sup- 
pressed. 

On  November  16,  1903,  the  decree  that  sanctioned 
the  total  suppression   of  the  religious  independence  of 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      217 

the   Armenians    was   received    by   the     Catholicos    at 
Etchmiadzin.     It  ran  as  follows  : 

"  Supreme  Order  to  the  Synod  of  Etchmiadzin. 

"  The  Emperor  has  condescended  upon  my  report  of 
October  18,  to  bring  the  following  measures  of  the  law 
into  operation. 

"  In  future,  and  until  there  shall  have  been  a  revision 
of  the  administrative  regimen  of  the  religious  affairs  of 
the  Christians  of  the  Armenian  Confession,  the  nomina- 
tion and  suspension  of  the  Vicars  Episcopal,  Diocesan 
Curates,  Members  of  Consistories,  Professors  of  the 
Seminaries  and  Academy  of  Etchmiadzin,  of  the 
Secular  Priests,  Archdeacons  and  Deacons,  can  only 
take  place  by  special  permission. 

"  Signed  :  The  Minister  of  the  Interior, 

"Von  Plehve." 

On  precisely  the  same  day,  by  a  coincidence  that 
must  be  noted  to  the  shame  of  the  "  Tsar-Civiliser,"  the 
Shah  of  Persia,  a  Musulman,  published  the  following 
Firman  : 

"  I  write  of  an  affair  which  I  have  much  at  heart. 
The  Armenian  Nation,  which  has  been  esteemed  by  the 
Throne  from  all  antiquity,  and  has  always  given  proof 
of  patriotism  and  loyalty,  is  proposing  to  augment  the 
number  of  its  schools  in  Teheran,  Tebriz,  and  other 
cities  of  Persia,  and  to  found  several  central  schools  that 
are  of  particular  importance.  Since  the  intentions  of 
the  Armenians  are  entirely  conformable  to  my  wishes, 
and  their  initiative  constitutes  an  important  impulse  in 
the  progress  of  our  subjects,  we  hereby  give,  in  this 
firman,  full  authorisation  to  open  schools  of  this  order. 

"  We  take  these  schools   under  our  special  protection. 


21 8  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

and  ordain  that  all  our  functionaries  shall  give  their 
support  and  energetic  assistance  to  this  eminently 
civilising  influence. 

"Given  in  the  month  of  Redieb,  1318." 

This  coincidence  certainly  contributed  to  impel  the 
nation  along  the  path  of  continued  revolt.  The 
Governor-General,  Galitzin — since  no  one  was  anxious 
to  succeed  him — had  to  assist  at  the  complete  over- 
throw of  his  administrative  terrorism.  He  elaborated  a 
desperate  project  of  "definitive  pacification,"  or  rather 
of  Russification  by  Assyrian  methods.  His  proposal 
was  to  deport  the  majority  of  the  population  from  the 
districts  of  Kars,  Erivan,  Choucha,  and  Tiflis,  to  Siberia, 
and  to  the  South-West  of  Russia,  and  to  transport  two 
millions  of  Russian  peasants  to  the  evacuated  country. 
This  project  was  laid  before  the  Tsar  by  Plehve,  and 
Nicholas  sanctioned  it,  in  his  crass  infatuation.  This, 
however,  was  on  Feb.  9,  1904.  The  Russian  debacle  in 
Manchuria  was  commencing  :  the  Armenians  were 
forgotten.  The  Armenians,  on  the  other  hand,  have  not 
forgotten  Tsardom.  The  threat  of  mass-deportation 
convinced  them  that  a  war  for  their  national  existence 
might  become  inevitable.  They  are  armed  to  the  teeth, 
and  their  part  in  the  struggle  against  Tsardom  might 
become  decisive  if  they  embarked  on  a  veritable  war 
engrafted  on  the  Revolution,  in  which  Poland  might 
simultaneously  co-operate. 

The  Ruthenians. 

The  most  numerous — and  least  known — of  the  Mus- 
covite nations  inhabits  the  southern  portion,  the  richest, 
most  fertile' most  industrious  district  of  Russia.     The 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      219 

attempt  has  been  made  to  assassinate  it  by  silence.  In 
the  West,  hardly  any  one  knows  that  the  whole  south  of 
Russia,  formerly  known  as  "  Ukrania,"  is  not  inhabited 
by  Russians,  properly  so-called,  but  by  Ruthenians,  or, 
as  the  Muscovite  Tsars  have  contemptuously  termed 
them,  "  Little  Russians." 

This  is  a  nation  of  twenty-five  million  souls.  And 
their  lot,  less  known  to  us  than  that  of  the  Armenians  or 
Finns,  is  not  less  sad  than  the  fate  of  other  "  Russified  " 
nationalities.  Their  martyrdom  began  exactly  two  and 
a  half  centuries  ago,  under  the  Tsar  whose  name  is 
borne  by  the  heir  of  Nicholas,  the  famous  Alexis.  At 
that  period  the  democratic  State  of  the  Ruthenians, 
who  were  known  as  the  Zaporogi  or  Kazaki  (not  to  be 
confounded  with  the  "  Cossacks,"  tribes  of  Mongolian 
extraction  who  furnish  a  savage  cavalry,  unfit  for 
modern  warfare),  was  the  prey  to  the  incursions  of 
Poles  and  Turks,  and  it  concluded  a  treaty  with  Moscow 
that  closely  resembled  the  pact  by  which  Austria  and 
Hungary  are  united  in  our  own  day.  It  was  an  unlucky 
move.  Its  autonomy  did  not  long  survive  this  alliance  ; 
just  the  time  it  took  the  Tsars  to  prepare  a  coup  de 
force,  as  in  Georgia  and  in  Finland.  The  famous 
Mazeppa,  who  allied  himself  with  Charles  XII.  of 
Sweden  against  the  oppressor  Peter  the  Great,  was  the 
last  independent  chief  of  the  country,  and  his  power  set 
in  the  Battle  of  Poltava.  Catharine  II.  purely  and 
simply  annexed  the  immense  territory  of  the  Ruthe- 
nians, and  substituted  serfdom  for  the  system  of  free 
peasant  communities.  And  this  in  the  name  of  the 
higher  civilisation  of  the  Muscovites  ! 

But  the  Ruthenians  were  to  endure  much  besides. 
They  are  among  the  Slavs  what  the  French  are  for  the 
Western  nations :  a  lively  intelligent  people,  prone  to 


220  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

salutary  initiative,  gifted  in  art  and  science,  in  brief  the 
real  carriers  of  civilisation  in  Oriental  Europe.  It  is 
to  them  that  the  Russian — a  Tartar-Slav — owes  his 
emergence  from  the  blackest  barbarism.  And  this 
doubtless  was  the  unpardonable  sin.  For  a  century- 
past,  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  russify  them.  But 
all  in  vain.  They  have  a  perfectly  independent  language 
that  owes  nothing  to  the  Russian  tongue,  a  highly 
developed  artistic  civilisation.  Their  literature  is  ex- 
tremely fine,  and  if  some  of  their  greatest  artists,  to  cite 
only  Gogol,  Glinka,  and  Korolenko,  have  preferred  to 
express  themselves  in  Russian,  it  is  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Czechs  or  the  Hungarians,  who  speak  German 
that  they  may  be  listened  to  in  the  name  of  their  better- 
known  masters. 

Alexander  II.,  surnamed  the  "  Liberator  Tsar,"  did 
indeed  abolish  the  serfdom  that  Catherine  had  imposed 
upon  the  Ruthenians  on  paper ;  but,  fearing  lest  the 
generous  ideas  of  this  great  nation  should  take  a 
dangerous  turn,  he  conceived  the  notion,  in  1876,  of 
promulgating  a  Ukase  that  rigorously  interdicted  the 
use  of  the  Ruthenian  language.  By  this  expedient,  which 
would  not  have  occurred  to  a  Genghiz  Khan,  a  Timur, 
or  an  Attila,  the  "  Liberator "  converted  the  most 
intelligent  nation  of  the  Empire  into  a  people  of  deaf 
mutes. 

Twenty-five  millions  of  human  beings  for  the  past 
twenty-eight  years  have  been  unable  to  read  any  book 
or  paper  printed  in  their  mother  tongue.  They  can  no 
longer  speak  or  sing  in  assemblies,  nor  address  them- 
selves to  the  authorities  in  the  only  language  that  is 
familiar  to  them.  Any  one  venturing  to  import 
Ruthenian  publications  (in  Galicia  for  example,  where 
two  millions  of  them  are  living  a  wretched  existence, 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      221 

tyrannised  over  by  the  Polish  nobles  who  govern  in 
Austria)  is  liable  to  deportation,  without  trial,  to  the  far 
depths  of  Siberia.  .  .  . 

And  for  the  further  exasperation  of  "  well-meaning  " 
Ruthenians,  the  Ukase  of  1876  received  fresh  confirma- 
tion in  1904.  The  Tsarevitch  Alexis  was  declared 
"  hetman,"  that,  is  Prince  of  the  Ruthenians.  And  on 
the  very  day  this  mark  of  favour  was  announced,  the 
Holy  Synod  refused  permission  to  a  group  of  learned 
scholars  to  circulate  the  Bible  in  the  Ruthenian  tongue  ! 
The  Bible — which  in  Russia  is  authorised  in  thirty-seven 
languages,  from  Yakuts  to  Turkish,  from  Lapp  to 
Armenian  !  One  language  alone  is  subversive,  that  of 
the  twenty-five  millions  of  Slavs  who  constitute  the  dite 
of  the  Tsar's  Empire  ! 

Albeit  these  odious  measures  have  entirely  alienated 
the  sympathies  of  the  Ruthenian  nation  from  Tsardom, 
including  the  best  servants  of  that  regime,  the  indolent 
and  illiterate  peasants  ;  albeit  in  Ukrania  the  popular 
spirit  has  been  awakened  by  the  reaction  from  this 
intellectual  oppression  more  quickly  and  more  com- 
pletely than  elsewhere ;  albeit  an  admirable  popular 
literature  penetrating  the  masses  for  the  last  thirty 
years  by  the  recitations  of  peasant  troubadours  has 
made  the  Ruthenians  newly  conscious  of  their  part, 
of  their  importance,  their  history,  and  the  oppression 
that  weighs  upon  them — the  majority  feel  themselves 
none  the  less  an  integral  part  of  the  Russian  Empire, 
and  they  make  no  claim  to  the  complete  autonomy  of 
former  times.  They  want  to  remain  Russians,  but  to  be 
citizens  of  a  Russia  that  respects  the  natural  aspirations 
of  all.  They  want  a  Russia  where  all  the  other  citizens 
and  themselves  shall  enjoy  the  use  of  their  own 
language,  and   carry  on   their   business    to   the    benefit 


222  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

of  their  individual  interests.  They  want  a  decentralised 
Russia,  freed  from  bureaucracy  and  from  economic  serf- 
dom. Hence  they  form  in  reality  an  immense  revolu- 
tionary group,  fed  by  the  numerous  cosmopolitan 
elements  which  they  include  along  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  Rumanian  frontier.  And  they  are  this,  not  for,  but 
in  virtue  of,  their  national  idiosyncrasies.  It  is  here 
that  the  first  agrarian  revolts  took  place  ;  it  is  here  that 
industrialism,  capitalism,  the  proletariat,  and  conscious 
socialism  have  assumed  an  enormous  development.  It 
is  here  that  the  first  grand  political  strikes  broke  out. 
And  it  is  these  people,  as  has  been  shown  by  the 
Ruthenian  Gapon,  who,  thanks  to  their  mental  vivacity, 
their  decision,  their  intelligence,  assume  the  direction  of 
the  popular  movement,  which  the  Great  Russians  them- 
selves, deprived  of  initiative  by  a  despotism  of  five 
centuries,  weighed  down,  stupefied,  crushed  by  religion, 
administration,  and  misery,  rendered  incapable  of  any 
kind  of  revolt,  would  probably  never  have  inaugurated, 
had  they  not  been  drawn  into  it  by  others. 

To  sum  up  then — the  whole  crowd  of  nations  by 
which  Central  Russia  is  surrounded,  more  than  a  third 
of  the  population  of  the  Empire,  is  deprived  by  the  Tsar 
of  the  "natural  rights"  which  every  living  nationality 
claims  for  itself.  All  these  countries  have  turned  from 
the  Tsarist  regime,  not  partly,  in  virtue  of  social  classes, 
but  as  a  whole,  as  entities  comprising  individuals  of  all 
conditions.  Accordingly  it  is  they  who  propound  the 
real  political  problem  :  the  total  transformation  of  the 
internal  structure  of  the  Empire. 

Among  these  nationalities  there  is  one,  however,  that 
has  a  peculiar  place,  since  its  exceptional  power  has  set 
it  at  the  head  of  all  the  victims  of  Pan-Russianism,  till 
it   has    finally   become   the   champion    proper    of    the 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      223 

Russian  victims  of  the  Bureaucracy,  thus  establishing  a 
connection  between  all  these  enslaved  peoples,  and  unity 
of  the  movement  which  is  drawing  the  subjects  on  to  the 
assault  of  despotism.     This  is  the  Nation  of  the  Jews. 

The  Jews. 

If  Pan-Russianism,  the  interested  Nationalism  of  the 
Bureaucracy,  has  provoked  national  resistances  that  were 
formerly  non-existent ;  if  its  brutal  and  unreasonable 
methods  have  created  ideas  of  political  radicalism,  and 
notably  socialism,  even  in  places  where  the  economic 
and  intellectual  conditions  for  the  birth  of  such  theories 
are  up  to  the  present  conspicuously  absent ;  if  in  a  word 
it  has  stirred  up  a  purely  political  reaction  among  popu- 
lations which  in  reality  hardly  grasp  the  importance  of 
political  forms  to  the  well-being  of  nations  {e.g.,  among 
the  White  Russians,  the  Ruthenian  peasants,  the  artisans 
of  Great  Russia,  who  are  only  peasants  out  of  touch  with 
agriculture),  all  this  is  the  fault  of  the  Anti-Semite 
policy,  which  has  done  more  than  all  historical  considera- 
tions to  originate  and  swell  the  idea  of  revolution  among 
the  oppressed  nationalities. 

In  Russia  the  Jews  are  not  as  they  are  elsewhere :  a 
race  completely  assimilated,  if  only  in  externals,  to  the 
milieu  in  which  they  live.  If  in  the  Russian  Empire  an 
unwonted  fortune  has  enabled  an  infinitesimal  Jewish 
minority,  despite  all  obstacles,  to  achieve  the  career  the 
Western  Jews  have  enjoyed  for  over  a  century,  the  im- 
mense majority,  numl^ering  at  the  least  some  five 
millions  of  persons,  constitute  a  highly  compact  nation- 
ality, set  apart  by  the  religion  they  fervently  practise 
and  by  an  external  ritual,  which  differentiates  them  at 
all  times  from  the  Christians  by  whom  they  are  sur- 
rounded ;  by  their  habits  of  daily  life  ;  by  their  general 


224  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

conceptions  ;  by  their  language,  Yiddish,  a  mixed  jargon 
of  German,  Hebrew,  and  Russian,  written  in  Hebrew 
characters  ;  and,  lastly,  by  their  activity,  which  makes 
them,  where  they  are  not  penned  up  like  cattle,  the 
economic  masters  of  the  Russians. 

The  principal,  almost  unique,  aspiration  of  this  people 
is  to  find  itself  in  conditions  favourable  to  its  assimila- 
tion by  the  nationalities  among  which  it  is  dispersed. 
Tsardom  has  prevented  it  by  brute  force  from  developing 
in  this  direction,  for  the  Jews,  once  gratified  by  absolute 
liberty  of  action,  would  not  merely  have  profited  them- 
selves by  the  superiority  accruing  to  them  from  their 
constant  relations  with  their  Western  co-religionaries,but, 
further,  their  conceptions,  being  more  adequate  to  the 
Western  intellect,  would  have  rapidly  penetrated  into  the 
surroundings  in  which  they  found  themselves,  and  would 
make  the  arbitrary  executive  of  Tsarist  Bureaucracy  un- 
bearable there  also. 

The  fact  that  the  Jews  had  not,  even  before  the  advent 
of  the  Bureaucracy,  enjoyed  unanimous  sympathy  from 
the  Slav  population  of  Russia,  is  to  be  accounted  for 
entirely  by  the  influence  of  the  Orthodox  clergy,  who 
have  represented  them  from  all  time  as  the  "  murderers 
of  Christ,"  not  without  augmenting  the  horror  of  the 
illiterate  and  infinitely  credulous  populace  still  further 
by  loading  them  with  the  ineptest  calumnies  (ritual 
murders,  blood-drinking,  counterfeiting  of  the  Eucharist, 
&c.),  such  as  in  bygone  days  possessed  the  minds  of 
Europeans  also.  The  clergy  have  pursued  this  absurd 
policy,  not,  as  is  too  often  the  case  in  other  countries, 
from  economic  reasons,  but  solely  from  religious 
fanaticism.  They  are  too  poverty-stricken  themselves, 
above  all  too  despised  by  the  people,  to  enjoy  any  con- 
sideration other  than  religious ;  they  are  considered  as  a 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      225 

trade-corporation  whose  special  business  it  is  to  put  men 
in  relation  with  God  ;  the  pope  is  paid  as  an  inter- 
mediary, a  kind  of  commercial  agent ;  his  moral  and 
economic  influence,  accordingly,  is  absolutely  null,  and 
he  would  have  been  incapable  of  combating  the  Jews 
by  economic  arguments. 

In  certain  districts,  indeed,  this  might  have  been 
possible,  and,  failing  the  clergy,  the  Tsar's  police  have 
undertaken  it.  Excluded  from  time  immemorial  by 
historical  development  from  agriculture  {i.e.  the  free, 
collectivist  peasant  commune,  existing  formerly  for 
Ruthenians  and  Russians,  at  present  for  the  latter 
only),  the  professions  of  artisan,  of  industrial  labour, 
and  of  commerce  alone  were  left  them  ;  retail  com- 
merce, bien  entendii.  Wherever  they  are  not  abso- 
lutely among  themselves,  they  have  succeeded  rapidly, 
thanks  to  their  address  and  vivacity,  in  monopolising 
this  commerce.  Since  on  the  one  hand  they  regulated 
prices,  and  on  the  other  were  almost  always  the  only 
inhabitants  possessed  of  ready  money,  they  have  been 
able  to  exert  a  considerable  economic  pressure,  not 
without  inevitably  becoming  the  usurers  of  an  ever-dis- 
tressful population.  Still,  the  hatred  of  the  exploited 
victims — wholly  unjustifiable,  for  the  rest,  since  it  issued 
solely  from  their  own  economic  incapacity — could  never 
have  stirred  up  a  true  race  animosity  against  them. 
P'or  everywhere,  even  when  Jews  arc  present,  the  most 
revolting  type  of  usurer,  the  true  "  blood-letter"  of  the 
populace,  is  the  Russian  usurer  himself,  the  Kiilak, 
"  screw,"  who  if  he  is  competing  with  the  Jews,  dis- 
credits them  by  making  capital  out  of  the  Orthodox 
fanaticism,  but  in  his  turn  behaves  with  infinitely  more 
brutality  to  his  victims  than  the  Jew,  because  he  need 
not  fear  reprisals  from  this  same  fanaticism. 

Q 


226  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

It  was  the  fear  of  seeing  the  Greater  Russians,  the 
pillars  of  Muscovite  despotism,  contaminated  by  notions 
that  would  have  undermined  their  Tsarian  political  prin- 
ciples, which  precipitated  the  Russian  Government  into 
Anti-Semitism,  even  before  the  advent  of  the  Bureau- 
cracy. The  Jews  were  isolated  in  ghettos,  or  "  districts," 
which  really  constituted  vast  zones,  entire  countries — 
all  outside  the  ancient  Muscovy  which  they  were 
only  permitted  to  leave  for  any  prolonged  period  when 
their  activity  seemed  fraught  with  advantages  for  the 
body  of  the  Tsar's  Empire  (as  merchants  on  a 
large  scale,  renowned  scholars,  and  the  like).  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  one  of  the  most  rigorously  pro- 
hibited zones  has  from  all  time  been  a  band  of  frontier- 
territory,  about  thirty  miles  in  width,  which  proves  that 
even  in  that  era,  the  Tsars  feared  that  the  "  foreign " 
Jew  would  be  in  too  continuous  relations  with  the  Jew 
"  alien  "  :  the  pretext  for  this  exclusion  was  the  prob- 
ability of  smuggling,  the  true  reason  was  the  fear  of 
Western  influences.  In  the  south-west  of  Russia 
(Podolia,  Bessarabia)  as  well  as  in  the  west  (Poland) 
and  in  the  north-west  (Lithuania,  White  Russia)  the 
"  districts "  were  already  crowded  enough  with  these 
prolific  people  ;  competition  was  hard,  and  the  misery 
acute.  But  since,  in  these  districts  at  any  rate,  there 
was  no  interdiction  of  abode,  and  as  even  beyond 
them  the  artisans  and  some  merchants  were  readily 
admitted  "  for  purposes  of  domicile,"  their  situation, 
undignified  though  it  might  be,  was  not,  taken  all 
round,  much  worse  than  that  of  the  Tsars  other 
subjects. 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      227 

The  Anti-Semitism  of  the  Government. 

The  Bureaucracy  replaced  this  out-of-date  Anti- 
Semitism  by  the  conception  of  the  open  struggle  of  the 
races.  It  was  even  more  afraid  of  the  Jewish  tempera- 
ment than  the  ancient  aristocratic  Tsardom  had  been, 
and  it  needed  above  all  a  scapegoat  on  which  to  dis- 
charge the  burden  of  its  own  misdeeds,  notably,  the 
economic  exploitation  of  the  populace.  Hence  it  sought 
to  crush  the  economic  and  intellectual  force  of  the 
Jews,  and  at  the  same  time  make  them  suspect  to  the 
Slavonic  people  as  their  political  and  social  enemies. 
All  this  became  possible  at  the  epoch  of  Nihilism,  when 
the  hatred  of  the  Jew,  artificially  nourished  by  the 
Government,  was  to  make  the  people  forget  their  hatred 
of  the  Bureaucracy.  We  have  seen,  in  our  account  of 
Plehve,  how  the  first  Jewish  massacres  were  organised. 
In  travestying  the  facts  with  an  appalling  astuteness 
which  never  failed  him  until  the  bomb  of  1904,  Plehve 
convinced  society  in  Russia  that  the  Jews  themselves 
had  been  the  authors  of  this  sanguinary  Anti-Semitism. 
Again,  from  1882,  under  pretext  of  "State  Security," 
he  had  promulgated  anti-Jewish  edicts  which,  according 
to  his  idea,  would,  as  he  confessed  himself,  destroy  the 
whole  nation  by  three  methods — hunger,  emigration, 
assassination.  These  edicts,  which  had  so  far  remained 
"  provisory,"  restricted  the  quarters,  huddled  nearly  all 
the  Jews  from  other  regions  into  them,  and,  more,  for- 
bade their  residence  in  country  places.  It  was  an 
organised  persecution.  Tens  of  thousands  of  Jews,  ex- 
pelled from  all  parts,  lost  their  means  of  subsistence, 
and  came  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed  in  the 
quarters,  where  there  was  already  a  plethora  in  every 
trade.     Restricted  by  the  nature    of  their    forced  resi- 

Q  2 


228  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

dence  to  a  certain  number  of  occupations,  their  pauper- 
ism became  alarming.  The  quarters  were  infernos. 
Death  by  inanition  was  a  trifling  accident ;  epidemics 
flourished,  by  reason  of  dirt  and  under-feeding.  Two- 
thirds — the  figure  is  official — of  the  Jews  fell  into  such 
destitution  that — the  words  are  official — their  "  food  did 
not  suffice  to  fit  them  for  the  trades  they  followed." 
And  yet  they  worked  on,  or  died.  The  most  fortunate 
emigrated  :  but  the  immense  majority  continued  their 
martyrdom  to  the  end.  Appalling  incidents  contributed 
to  the  eternal  disgrace  of  the  Tsarian  tyrants  !  Sviato- 
polk-Mirski  himself,  the  reputed  "  Liberal,"  committed  the 
abominable  action  of  forbidding,  in  accordance  with  the 
law,  the  entire  Jewish  population  of  four  thousand  souls, 
whose  quarter  had  been  destroyed  by  fire,  to  take  refuge 
in  the  country  places  round  (not  far  from  Vilna)  ;  it 
was  in  the  winter  of  1903,  when  the  cold  was  Siberian  ; 
the  unhappy  wretches  remained  without  shelter,  almost 
without  clothes  or  food,  for  three  days  and  nights  ;  and 
six  hundred  of  them  perished  in  the  two  succeeding 
months. 

But  Plehve's  idea  was  fallacious. 

While  his  laws  of  1882  were  intended  to  stifle  the 
Jews,  contemporaneous  economic  and  financial  policy 
gave  them  unexpected  force. 

This  policy,  in  fact,  could  not  have  been  initiated 
without  the  Jewish  capitalists,  who  received  an  impetus 
the  more  dangerous  to  the  Administration,  inasmuch 
as  the  solidarity  of  the  Jews  was  manifested  at  the 
same  time  by  the  support  which  capital  lent  to  the  co- 
religionist proletariat.  Nor  was  it  merely  a  question  of 
large  capital,  which  was  even  more  rare  among  the  Jews 
than  among  the  Russians.  The  latter  had  not  the  ini- 
tiative  that   was   so  essential    in  this   period  of  febrile 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING       229 

economic  activity.  The  Jews  abounded  in  it,  the  more 
since  their  safety  possibly  depended  on  it.  All  the 
Jewish  capital  was  employed  at  once.  The  "  lower-class 
Jews  "  themselves,  who,  as  has  been  stated,  were  the  sole 
possessors  of  ready  money  in  the  villages,  made  great 
profit  out  of  it.  The  Jewish  proletariat  found  new 
means  of  gaining  a  livelihood  by  the  new  industries  ; 
and  the  Jewish  patrons  preferred  that  their  hands  should 
be  co-rcligionists.  The  number  of  Jews,  who  had 
become  so  influential,  from  the  economic  point  of  view, 
that  they  could  no  longer  be  treated  as  pariahs,  was 
perpetually  on  the  increase.  The  cleverer  of  them  re- 
turned as  masters,  where  their  fathers  had  been  hunted 
out  as  vermin.  The  Jewish  artisan  proletariat,  active, 
solvent,  grew  wiser  day  by  day,  and  organised  itself 
If  the  poverty  was  still  appalling,  the  hope  at  least  of 
changed  conditions,  and  therewith  energy  to  work, 
revived.  Yet  all  this  was  the  least  of  the  disasters  the 
Bureaucracy  had  brought  upon  itself  by  its  Anti- 
Semitism. 

As  to  the  Russians,  for  whose  benefit  the  crimes  against 
the  Jews  purported  to  be  committed,  they  profited  in  no 
way  by  the  anti-Jewish  injunctions.  On  the  contrary^ 
absence  of  Jews  was  generally  translatable  into  commer- 
cial decay,  increased  price  of  commodities — in  brief, 
absence  of  economic  vitality. 

Within  the  Jewish  Zone,  moreover,  Russian  officialism 
soon  found  its  brutality  combated  by  the  more  astute 
weapon  of  corruption.  The  quarters  became  a  breeding- 
house  of  functionaries  who  were  unable  to  conceive  of 
public  offices  without  peculation  and  prevarication,  and 
who  disseminated  the  administrative  practices  of  the 
Jewish  zone  throughout  the  entire  Empire. 

Nothing  could  be  more  natural.     On  the  one  hand  the 


230  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Jews  were  absolutely  deprived  of  rights,  at  the  mercy  of 
the  officials,  and  as  they  came  more  and  more  to  be 
regarded  as  the  adversaries  of  Tsardom,  all  the  annoy- 
ances inflicted  on  them  were  covered  by  the  most 
influential  personages  (Plehve,  Serge,  Pobiedonostseff, 
&c.) ;  blackmailing,  illegal  taxes,  even  looting  were  all 
condoned.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Jews  in  easy  circum- 
stances were  perforce  willing  to  pay  ready  money  for 
the  contingent  tranquillity  that  the  officials  were  more 
than  ready  to  sell  them,  in  order  to  avoid  the  innumerable 
vexations  that  would  otherwise  embroil  their  affairs,  or 
even  destroy  the  harmony  of  their  private  relations. 
The  co-operation  of  these  two  elements  accounts  for  all 
the  horrors  of  contemporary  Russian  Anti-Semitism,  as 
well  as  for  the  revolting  cynicism  of  the  average 
functionary.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  recall  the  details 
of  the  massacres  of  Kishineff  and  Homel,  in  which  a 
project  of  political  distraction  from  the  Revolution  (as 
in  1882)  was  united  to  a  lust  for  extortion  of  subsidies 
and  pillage.  The  trials  contingent  on  these  butcheries 
proved  that  the  Authorities  collaborated  in  their  organi- 
sation, as  by  the  payment,  inter  alia^  of  the  cost  of  printing 
the  proclamations  that  incited  the  mob  to  pillage.  An 
episode  from  the  first  of  these  trials  will  reveal  the 
nature  of  this  official  Anti-Semitism  better  than  any 
analysis. 

The  Jewish  merchant  Mendel  Rudi,  a  commercial 
notability  at  Kishineff,  was  completely  ruined  by  the 
massacres.  On  the  fatal  day  he  had  in  his  shop  two 
safes  containing  some  ;^3,ooo. 

He  betook  himself  to  the  Governor,  De  Raaben,  to 
claim  protection.  After  the  latter  had  kept  him  in 
suspense  for  an  hour,  he  promised  to  give  him  a  guard 
for  his  house,  and  to  give  orders  to  that  effisct  imme- 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      231 

diately.  When  Rudi  got  back  to  his  house,  it  was  in 
the  hands  of  pillagers  who  were  breaking  everything, 
and  worked  all  day  to  force  his  safes,  although  the 
Head  Office  of  the  Police  was  immediately  opposite. 
The  Deputy  Chief  of  the  Police  accompanied  by  a  gang 
of  agents  held  the  street  during  this  time,  and  would  not 
permit  any  interference  with  the  marauders.  The  officer 
repeatedly  refused  to  intervene,  on  the  pretext  that  "  his 
instructions  did  not  provide  for  the  case."  By  the 
evening  the  safes  were  forced,  and  the  money  was 
distributed,  the  Deputy  Chief  of  Police  at  the  head  of 
the  recipients.  The  Governor  himself  received  a 
"  honorary  gift"  next  day  from  the  police-officers  ! 

At  the  trial,  the  Public  Prosecutor  and  the  Court  were 
unable  to  dispute  the  accuracy  of  these  facts.  The 
barristers,  Karabatchcvski  and  Kalmanovitch,  on  behalf 
of  the  civil  (Jewish)  party,  stated  cases  tending  to 
inculpate  the  functionaries  who  were  convicted  of  com- 
plicity. The  Prosecutor  and  Court  declined,  and 
adjourned  the  hearing  for  four  hours,  which  they 
occupied  by  an  exchange  of  despatches  with  the 
Ministers  of  the  Interior  (Plehve)  and  of  Justice 
(Muravieff).  After  the  adjournment,  the  conclusions 
were  rejected  for  reasons  that  were  summed  up  in  the 
words  "  by  order."  The  principal  lawyers  then  threw 
up  the  cases,  declaring  that  the  complicity  of  the 
Government  and  the  Magistrates  made  fresh  massacres 
absolutely  inevitable. 

It  may  be  useful  to  add  that  the  horrid  farce  of  this 
trial  of  the  murderers  of  Jews  (eight  of  whom  did  not 
inhabit  Kishinefif  and  had  been  purposely  "  imported  " 
some  days  before)  was  played  out  to  the  bitter  end. 
Only  twenty-eight  of  them  were  found  guilty.  Two, 
convicted   of    murder    in    more    than    ten    cases,   were 


232  RUSSIA  FROM   WITHIN 

condemned  to  eight  years  in  prison,  the  rest  to  one  or 
two  years.  No  damages  were  allowed  the  despoiled  Jews. 
The  list  runs  :  1,350  houses  destroyed,  burned,  ravaged  ; 
j^ 1 6,000  looted  from  the  safes  under  police  superinten- 
dence ;  320  wounded,  52  dead,  2,000  families  reduced  to 
appalling  misery  ;  and,  lastly,  the  impunity — with  com- 
mendation— of  the  real  culprits,  officers  and  soldiers, 
journalists,  agitators,  peculators,  police,  governors,  pre- 
fects, ministers,  all  convicted  by  irrefutable  proofs  of  being 
the  instigators  and  organisers  of,  and  persons  benefited 
by,  the  crime. 

Yes,  the  Russian  Jews  are,  as  Plehve  said,  the  enemies 
of  this  regime,  and  corrupt  the  Tsar's  officials.  And 
with  reason. 

Anti-Semitism  waxed  rabid  in  virtue  of  the  people's 
discontent.  It  celebrated  its  supreme  orgies  when 
the  war  with  Japan  broke  out.  In  the  first  place 
there  was  the  terrible  scourge  of  the  blackmail  levied 
upon  all  the  Jews  who  were  tolerated  outside  the 
quarters  by  the  subordinate  functionaries  and  police, 
who  presented  themselves  to  levy  heavy  "  voluntary 
contributions  "  for  the  Red  Cross,  the  naval  subsidies,  or 
other  institutions.  These  agents  were  in  the  habit  of 
recommending  their  victims  to  "  fork  out  a  little  more," 
on  pain  of  being  evicted  from  their  positions.  Needless 
to  say,  the  contributions  obtained  in  this  way  never 
arrived  at  the  coffers  for  which  they  were  destined. 

In  the  next  place  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  had 
arrogated  to  himself,  by  a  highly  characteristic  exercise 
of  power,  the  privilege  of  a  partial  revision  of  the  lists  of 
the  reservists  who  were  liable  for  service.  Needless  to 
say,  the  percentage  of  Jews  sent  to  the  war  by  this 
means  was  simply  monstrous  (ten  times  too  many). 
Nearly  the  whole  body  of  Jewish  doctors  was  eliminated 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      233 

from  S.  Petersburg  in  this  fashion.  Of  180  doctors  who 
went  to  the  front  between  March  ist  and  lOth,  1904, 
no  were  Jews.  It  must  be  stated,  on  the  evidence 
of  another  Minister,  that  this  extraordinary  measure 
was  taken  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  Minister  for 
War,  by  the  Secretariat  of  the  Interior :  for  a  two-fold 
reason.  On  the  one  hand,  all  the  educated  Jews  were 
believed  to  be  Liberals,  whose  presence  in  Russia  did 
not  seem  desirable  in  a  crisis.  On  the  other  hand, 
reprehensible  and  interested  representations  were  made 
by  the  Christian  practitioners,  who  desired  to  free  them- 
selves— even  at  the  cost  of  sacrifices — from  dangerous 
competition  ;  two  functionaries  in  high  places  received 
gratuities,  amounting  to  over  iJ"2,ooo,  from  these  patriotic 
doctors. 

The  Jewish  doctors  expedited  to  the  Far  East  were, 
moreover,  stripped  of  a  portion  of  their  emoluments. 
They  were  only  allowed  900  roubles  for  the  expenses  of 
the  journey,  while  the  Christians  received  1,225.  In  the 
Ministry's  lists,  all  figured  indiscriminately  as  receiving 
the  same  sum.  The  difference  disappeared  in  the 
pockets  of  the  functionaries,  who  were  certain  to  be 
shielded  by  their  comrades  and  Anti-Semite  superiors. 

The  families  of  the  Jewish  reservists  and  doctors  on 
active  service  were  a  prey  to  annoyances  from  the 
Authorities,  who  expelled  them  from  the  large  towns  to 
the  ghettos  reserved  for  Jews — an  eminently  chivalrous 
act  in  the  absence  of  the  father  of  the  family,  but 
"  rendered  necessary  "  by  the  edicts,  which  stipulated 
that  "  where  the  father  of  the  family  is  incapable  of 
providing  for  its  needs,  the  family  must  in  every  case  be 
expelled  to  the  districts." 

To  escape  this  fate  in  the  name  of  the  patriotism  of 
their  husbands,  the  wives   were  fain    to    purchase   the 


234  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

"  goodwill "  of  the  officials  at  exorbitant  "  war  "  prices  ; 
evidence  of  this  has  been  given  in  Courts  of  Justice, 
even  when  these  odious  stipulations  had  been  annulled 
by  a  special  Rescript  of  the  Tsar. 

Lastly,  wherever  the  Russian  Reservists  were  mo- 
bilised, the  Jews  were  the  victims  of  massacre  and 
pillage. 

How  was  it  that  these  victims  were  invariably  Jews  ? 
The  answer  is  simple.  The  Bureaucracy  finds  a  material 
and  political  profit  in  this  sanguinary  Anti-Semitism. 
Since  disorder  was  inevitable  under  the  conditions 
created  by  the  Authorities,  it  was  scheduled  against 
the  Jews.  Here  are  one  or  two  facts  in  evidence.  At 
Dvinsk,  the  Chief  of  the  Police  attached  notices  to  the 
street-lamps,  recommending  the  Jews  to  abstain  during 
the  period  of  mobilisation  from  all  money-broking,  on 
pain  of  popular  reprisals.  In  the  Department  of 
Vitebsk,  a  Governmental  circular  ordered  all  the  chiefs 
of  districts  to  take  similar  measures,  threatening  the 
Jews  with  massacres.  At  Mohileff,  the  Head  of  the 
Police,  an  individual  of  the  name  of  Radionoff,  pro- 
nounced the  following  allocution,  on  October  15th,  1904, 
before  some  fifteen  Jewish  workmen  who  had  come  to 
protest  against  the  closing  of  a  factory  :  "  We  shall  have 
mobilisation,  then  you  will  pay  for  your  revolutionary 
misdeeds  ;  your  blood  will  flow  throughout  the  city." 
Which  actually  happened  a  week  later.  It  may  be 
added  that  at  the  outset  of  the  war,  when  the  Govern- 
ment Press  had  accused  the  Jews  of  acting  in  concert 
with  the  Japanese,  this  same  functionary  had  menaced 
them  with  massacres  "  like  those  at  Kishineff,"  but  had 
calmed  down  in  view  of  500  roubles  which  the  Jewish 
merchants  tendered  him. 

The  disturbances,  for  all  this  class  of  people,  have 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      235 

been  too  good  a  source  of  revenue  not  to  be  encouraged. 
But  their  methods,  sanguinary  or  not,  would  never  have 
been  possible  if  the  Anti-Semitism  of  the  Government  had 
not  delivered  the  Jews  tied  and  bound  into  their  hands. 
Thus  there  is  one  excuse  for  them  :  the  same  the  Jews 
would  put  forward  if  they  were  ashamed  of  being  revo- 
lutionaries. It  is  the  Administration  that  is  the  sole 
source  of  the  evil. 


The  Jewish  Revolution. 

The  cardinal  result  of  the  Anti-Jewish  legislation  has 
thus  been  to  degrade  Russian  Officialism  a  few  steps 
lower  in  its  abjectness.  And,  by  recoil,  this  deteriora- 
tion, translated  by  the  most  ignominious  oppression  of 
the  Jews,  had,  if  possible,  an  even  more  disastrous  effect 
upon  Tsardom,  Jew  capitalism,  with  the  train  of 
middle-class  Intellectuals  who  depend  upon  it,  might 
here  as  elsewhere  have  become  a  precious  auxiliary  of 
the  Autocracy  against  the  aspirations  of  the  lower 
classes.  Finding  itself,  however,  exploited,  and  looted 
by  the  irresponsible  tyranny  of  the  Bureaucracy,  the 
Jewish  bourgeoisie  saw  a  no  less  odious  adversary  above 
than  below;  and  thus  it  has  deliberately  made  itself  the 
core  of  agglomeration  of  all  the  discontented  elements. 
Here,  beyond  the  law,  the  intelligence,  energy,  and 
solidarity  of  the  Jews  has  found  its  way  plain.  And  in 
the  last  resort  came  about  the  extraordinary  spectacle  of 
the  Russians,  for  whose  benefit  Anti-Semitism  had  been 
organised,  rallying  round  the  Jews  to  combine  with  them 
against  the  Autocracy. 

In  reality,  there  is  not  a  single  grand  political  organisa- 
tion in  the  Empire  that  is  not  directed,  or  at  any  rate 
markedly  influenced,  by  the  Jews.    Even  the  "  Liberals," 


236  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

constitutional  monarchists  who  are  recruited  from  the 
highest  classes  of  society,  and  among  the  officials  them- 
selves, wherever  opportunism  has  not  stifled  their  in- 
dependence of  opinion,  would  be  lost  without  the  Jews. 
And  if  the  Liberal  Nobles  who,  in  1904,  took  the  lead  in 
the  constitutional  manifestations  in  the  Departmental 
Assemblies,  have  not  avowed  their  connection  with  the 
Jews,  this  is  because  they  have  been  able  to  adopt  defen- 
sive tactics  against  the  Bureaucracy,  since  they  still  have 
ancient  rights  to  defend  against  the  new  regime^  but  they 
have  practically  followed  the  Jewish  initiative  in  their 
political  campaign.  In  all  the  other  parties,  the  Jews  are 
the  avowed  leaders.  The  Marxian  Social-Democrats,  the 
Terrorist  Social-Revolutionists,  the  Socialists  of  Poland, 
above  all — and  perhaps  best  organised  of  all  these 
secret  associations — the  Jewish  artisan  party,  the  Bund, 
are  directed  by  Jews,  and  are  necessarily  influenced  by 
the  Jewish  radicalism  of  the  alien. 

Hence,  to  sum  up,  Plehve  and  his  successors  must  be 
held  justified  in  assuming  that  the  Political  Question  and 
the  Jewish  Question  are  fundamentally  one.  If  this 
was  the  case,  it  must  be  added  that  no  solution  of  the 
crisis  other  than  civil  war  would  be  possible.  For  the 
Polish,  Ruthenian,  Armenian,  and  other  questions,  all  of 
which  have  given  way  to  the  Jewish  Question,  would 
crop  up  again  one  after  the  other  the  instant  it  had  been 
solved.  The  Russian  Empire  would  cease  to  exist  in  its 
present  form,  and  would  be  replaced  by  a  Federation 
resembling  that  of  Germany  or  even  Austria-Hungary. 
This  obviously  serious  consideration  has  thrown  Tsar- 
dom,  and  even  its  most  reasonable  officers,  into  a  state  of 
absolute  reaction  in  everything  that  concerns  the  ques- 
tion of  purely  political  transformations.  It  is  impossible 
to  touch  on  these  without  evoking  the  spectre  of  the 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      237 

decadence  of  Great  Russian  Power.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  problem  that  is  agitating  Tsardom  itself  is 
quite  distinct.  Its  supporters  insinuate  that  the  un- 
deniable revolutionary  movement  is  not  political  in 
character — at  most  a  million  of  Great  Russians  would 
understand  it  as  such — but  is  due  to  two  other  causes. 
These  last,  absence  of  justice,  and  misery — nourished  by 
the  Bureaucracy — have  provoked  a  moral  crisis  and  a 
social  crisis,  beneath  the  political  situation. 

The  Moral  Crisis. 

This  Tsarian  Theory,  which  will  discover  for  us  the 
real  springs  of  the  Revolution,  is  based  upon  the  distinctly 
striking  fact  that  the  profound  national  and  social  differ- 
ences existing  in  the  Empire  have  been  completely  wiped 
out  in  order  to  give  place  to  one  single  and  powerful 
common  aspiration  :  the  overthrow  of  the  Bureaucratic 
regime.  The  explanation  of  this  remarkable  phenomenon 
lies  wholly  in  a  psychological  fact :  this  is  the  reaction 
against  the  insolence  of  the  Bureaucracy  as  exercised 
towards  all  the  Tsar's  subjects,  without  exception.  All, 
rich  and  poor,  aristocrats  and  peasants,  burghers, 
scholars,  and  artisans,  arc  equally  deprived  of  any 
means  of  resisting  the  arbitrary  executive  of  no  matter 
what  functionary,  who  may  intervene  in  the  most  trivial 
affairs  of  daily  life,  as  much  as  in  the  gravest  judicial  or 
political  matters.  And  this  situation  of  the  people  in 
face  of  a  reigning  caste  who  arc  minus  any  scruples  is 
the  more  insupportable,  inasmuch  as  the  official  acts, 
which  we  have  just  termed  "  arbitrary  "  in  accordance 
with  the  Western  point  of  view,  arc  not  so  at  all  accord- 
ing to  Russian  law.  In  the  immense  majority  of  cases, 
on   the  contrary,  these  "  arbitrary  "  acts  without   appeal 


238  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

are  perfectly  conformable  to  the  spirit,  or,  failing  that, 
at  least  to  the  letter  of  the  edicts  invented  by  the 
Bureaucracy,  accepted  as  useful  by  ignorant  Tsars,  and 
ratified  under  the  denomination,  doubtless  ironical,  ot 
"  laws  "  by  the  very  individuals  who  have  proposed  them 
in  view  of  their  proper  interests. 

It  is  this  judicial  oppression,  this  legalisation  of 
illegality,  this  regime  of  denial  of  justice,  which  consti- 
tutes the  strongest  tie  that  unites  the  divergent  elements 
of  the  Revolution.  This  has  been  recognised  by  the 
Chiefs  of  the  Bureaucracy  itself,  by  outsiders  like  Witte 
or  Mirski,  as  well  as  by  the  terrified  Oligarchy,  by 
Muravieff,  Pobiedonostseff,  and  the  Grand  Dukes. 
But  if  the  most  determined  tyrants  dream  of  destroying 
the  "  moral  bands "  of  the  Revolution  by  giving  the 
people  opportunity  of  strict  appeal  to  the  "  law,"  and 
therewith  suppressing  the  "  arbitrary  executive,"  they 
could  not,  under  pain  of  political — and  pecuniary — 
suicide  admit  that  the  "  law,"  as  it  exists  in  Russia,  is 
itself  the  supreme  arbitrament,  because  it  confers  dis- 
cretionary powers  on  irresponsible  functionaries,  which 
permit,  and  often  indeed  enforce,  what  we  should  term 
infringements  of  justice.  Under  these  circumstances,  the 
suppression  of  arbitrary  executive  and  legislative  reform 
is  possible  only  by  the  complete  destruction  of  all 
existing  Russian  legislation.  For — and  here  we  have 
the  cardinal  point — the  pivot  of  the  whole  revolutionary 
crisis,  the  independent  existence  of  the  "  legal  arbitra- 
ment," in  all  domains  of  State  Conduct,  relegates  the 
entire  administration  and  jurisdiction  solely  to  the 
personal  dispositions  of  the  functionary. 

There  is  a  "  law  "  for  example,  which  gives  the  Chief 
Censor  discretionary  power  to  determine  if  manuscripts 
are  eligible  for  publication  or  not.     There  is  not  one 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      239 

word  to  fix  the  limits  of  eligibility.  The  significance  of 
such  a  law  can  be  judged  if  in  imagination  we  substitute 
for  the  former  school-inspector  Zviereff,  a  disciple  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Serge  and  of  Pobiedonostseff,  who  was  in 
charge  of  this  department  during  the  Oligarchy,  men 
like  Tolstoi  or  Gorki.  The  three  names  constitute  three 
different  laws.  (A  man  like  Zviereff  was  able  to  go  so  far 
as  to  forbid  the  foreign  Press  to  say  what  it  liked  ;  and 
he  dared  establish  a  "  Special  Bureau  for  the  Corre- 
spondents of  the  Foreign  Press,"  where  these  last  can 
find  "  the  only  veracious  intelligence  that  will  be  accepted 
without  censure  by  the  telegraph  agencies  " :  by  which, 
naturally,  only  the  French  journalists  have  profited.) 

Another  "  law  "  gives  the  Chief  of  the  Political  Police, 
an  institution  contrary  in  itself  to  the  notion  of  law, 
the  right  of  watching  the  correspondence  of  suspected 
persons.  Who  is  suspect  .-'  Some  regard  a  Minister  as 
non-suspect.  Others  hold  that  every  one  is  suspect  who 
is  sufficiently  wealthy  to  be  the  convenient  victim  of 
a  rich  blackmail.  Plehve — as  we  have  seen — suspects 
his  own  superiors,  the  Tsar  himself,  the  whole  world, 
as  appears  from  the  following  official  injunction  of 
February,  1904:  "Letters  under  a  closed  envelope 
coming  from  abroad  must  not  contain  any  printed 
Russian  matter.  Enclosures  not  conforming  to  this 
rule  will  be  confiscated."  How  was  Plehve  to  ascer- 
tain the  presence  of  printed  matter  in  Russian,  within 
closed  envelopes  ?  He  was  committing  wholesale  vio- 
lation of  private  correspondence.  This  misdemeanour 
is,  therefore,  legal  in  Russia. 

Facts  like  these  serve  to  show  that  all  the  promises 
and  reforms  by  which  the  Bureaucracy  have  sought  to 
influence  the  moral  crisis  are  vain.  "  The  right  of 
every  subject  to  obtain  justice  according  to  the  law  "  is 


240  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

a  contradictio  in  adjecto.  Nevertheless,  the  question  has 
been  cleverly  enough  proposed.  The  "  moral  question  " 
is  only  the  awakening  of  human  dignity  throughout  the 
nation  ;  it  is  the  question  of  popular  confidence  in  the 
law  ;  cannot  this  problem  be  solved  without  recourse  to 
fundamental  changes  in  the  political  organisation  of  the 
Empire  ?  The  national  enslavement  under  the  rod  of 
the  Bureaucracy  is  in  no  way  a  political  question.  It  is 
solely  "an  unfortunate  coincidence  of  130  million  per- 
sonal questions"!  If  each  subject  of  the  Tsar  could 
individually  obtain  satisfaction  in  the  matter  of  just 
treatment  by  each  individual  functionary,  the  entire 
question  would  disappear.  If  every  bureaucrat  con- 
formed to  the  existing  law,  not  like  Plehve,  who  utilised 
it  for  his  personal  interests,  but  honestly,  in  the  interest 
of  the  country  and  its  peoples,  the  Bureaucracy  would 
meet  with  no  hatred,  no  resistance ;  no  revolutionary 
movement  would  be  possible  ;  no  one  except  the  "  aliens," 
who  have  adopted  the  fatal  attitude  of  mind  of  civilised 
peoples,  would  demand  the  right  of  interference  in 
Governmental  activity !  For  see !  is  Revolution,  or  a 
Constitution,  demanded  for  aught  beside  a  guarantee 
against  official  arbitrament  ?  Thus  the  moral  problem 
becomes  a  mere  question  of  administrative  tact,  and 
this,  it  is  obvious,  might  be  settled  by  the  Bureaucracy 
itself,  which  would  thereby  not  only  retain  its  absolute 
and  fruitful  power,  but  would  further  secure  the  love  and 
sympathy  of  the  nation  ! 

This  singular  bureaucratic  argument  may  be  less 
specious  than  it  appears  to  the  Western  mind  ;  it  is, 
in  fact,  based  upon  the  real  temper  of  large  masses  of 
peasants  and  other  uncivilised  people  w^ho  are  still  in- 
capable of  discerning  the  importance  of  political  forms, 
but  who  rebel  sullenly  in  one  case  and  another  against 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      241 

the  arbitrary  proceedings  of  the  Authorities,  And 
it  might  even  be  thought  that  up  to  the  moment 
when  these  ignorant  and  apathetic  masses  discover 
that  a  slave  well  treated  is  none  the  less  a  slave, 
"  administrative  tact  "  might  really  retard  the  Revolu- 
tion, if  only  tact  and  bureaucracy  were  not  at 
opposite  poles.  And  even  if  the  "  moral  reform  "  were 
accomplished,  if  each  functionary  did  render  himself 
individually  and  judicially  responsible  for  the  official 
acts  which  he  commits  against  the  law — a  reform  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  has  completely  aborted  by  the  fault  of 
the  Grand  Duke  Vladimir,  who  was  desirous  of  securing 
impunity  without  restriction  for  the  Grand  Dukes — 
nothing  else  would  change  so  long  as  the  Bureaucracy 
itself  could  persist  in  transforming,  introducing,  and 
abolishing  "  laws "  free  of  all  national  control.  The 
Bureaucracy  will  continue  simply  to  transform  the  law 
in  such  fashion  as  to  render  any  despotic  action  con- 
formable with  it  that  may  appear  favourable  to  the 
material  or  moral  interests  of  the  reigning  caste. 

The  Legal  Arbitrament. 

Special  volumes  would  be  needed  to  set  out  the 
repertory  of  this  Legislation  for  the  Use  of  the  Bureau- 
cracy, There  is  scarcely  a  single  law,  hardly  a  Tsarian 
measure  of  the  pre-burcaucratic  epoch,  which  has  not 
been  transformed  with  the  view  of  "  legalising  the 
arbitrament"  of  these  functionaries.  In  this  state  of 
things,  this  legal  anarchy,  the  nation  sees  the  political 
foundation  that  the  Oligarchy  seeks  to  deny.  How  in 
fact  is  this  development  of  arbitrary  bureaucratic  execu- 
tive to  be  checked  save  by  national  control  of  the 
legislation  ?    And  how   is    this  control   to  be  exercised 

R 


242  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

without    a    Constitution,    without     legislative     powers 
devolving  upon  a  National  Elective  Representation  ? 

Muravieff  and  Plehve  have  been  the  principal  authors 
of  the  arbitrary  transformation  of  the  law,  and  have  sur- 
passed themselves  in  exact  proportion  with  the  increas- 
ing force  of  popular  demands. 

We  have  seen  that  Plehve  nominated  Muravieff 
Minister  of  Justice,  because  the  previous  Minister  had 
refused  to  abolish  the  sole  independent  jurisdiction  that 
was  in  existence.  Muravieff  suppressed  the  Justices  of 
the  Peace,  and  charged  the  police  by  a  "  law  "  to  occupy 
themselves  with  the  affairs  that  formerly  devolved  on 
this  jurisdiction.  Hence  for  all  minor  matters  justice 
was  replaced  by  simple  orders  from  the  police,  without 
either  discussion  or  possibility  of  defence.  This  was  the 
first  great  coup  carried  by  Bureaucracy  against  Justice. 
Muravieff  inundated  the  Magistracy  with  "  circulars " 
equivalent  to  edicts,  in  which  phrases  like  the  following 
may  be  culled :  "  Magistrates  are  officials  like  the  rest ; 
hence  their  first  duty  is  that  of  discipline  and  obedience 
to  the  orders  of  their  superiors."  "  I  therefore  recom- 
mend the  Public  Prosecutors  and  Presidents  to  solicit 
the  advice  of  the  Ministry  before  concluding  upon  and 
judging  these  (political)  cases,  for  the  avoidance  of  un- 
fortunate consequences."  "  The  Magistrates,  officials  of 
the  Autocratic  Emperor,  must  in  these  delicate  func- 
tions (preliminary  reports  upon  suspected  persons)  have 
regard  conclusively  to  the  interest  of  the  State,  and 
exaggerate  their  solicitude  in  this  direction  sooner  than 
act  against  these  interests  from  false  considerations 
of  indulgence."  In  other  words,  the  principle  of  this 
regime  was  that  of  Conviction  by  Order. 

Striking  examples  of  this  were  seen  in  the  grand  trials 
at  Kishineff  and  Homcl  of  the  men  who  massacred  the 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      243 

Jews  ;  in   one  (at  Homel),  they  exculpated  the  whole 
crew,  at  the  same  time  pronouncing  a  moral  conviction 
of  the   victims.      The   trial    (1903)   of    the  strikers   of 
Taganrog   proved   that   the   Minister  of  Justice   could 
arrogantly  insist  on  false  witness  from  his  officials,  as 
well  as  suborn  the  non-official  witnesses,  and  even  dictate 
the  terms  of  the  sentence.     Fifteen  secret  agents  bore 
witness  in  this  case  against  some  twenty  accused  persons, 
reproaching   them    for   revolutionary   propositions   con- 
taining foreign  words  of  which  they  did  not  even  know 
the  meaning,  as  was  stated  in  the  defence.     In  order  not 
to  make  any  mistake  in  attributing  these  propositions  on 
the   hearing   to  any  accused  persons  other  than  those 
before  them,  the  Court  put  numbers  agreeing  with  those 
of  the  files  beside  the  place  of  each  accused,  in  order  to 
facilitate  the  task  of  the  officials.     When  these  numbers 
were    removed   at   the   instigation   of  the   defence,  the 
witnesses  failed  in  every  single  case  to  recognise  those 
whom  they  were  charging.     The  same  occurred  with  the 
non-official  witnesses,  six  of  whom  had  been  absent  from 
the  town  at  the  time  of  the  strikes,  and  who  in  some 
trouble  of  mind  confessed  that  they  had   been  received 
by  the  prosecutor,  who  had  dictated  their  depositions, 
not    without   a  promise  of  gratuities    in    money.     The 
situation  was  so  painful  that  the  Court  was  unable  to 
come  to  any  decision,  and  the  debates  dragged  on  for 
five  hours  over  a  question  of  form,  in  order  subsequently 
to    pronounce    the    most    fantastic   sentences.     An    in- 
discretion   only    to   be   expected    brought   to  light   an 
interchange  of  cypher  despatches  with  the  Ministry,  the 
last  of  which  dictated  the  penalties  to  be  inflicted  ! 

This  is  a  single,  typical  and  well-established  case,  out 
of  thousands  similar  to  it. 


K  2 


244  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 


Transformation  of  the  Laws. 

In  all  these  cases  there  has  at  any  rate  been  some 
trial,  some  judicial  intervention,  some  application,  how- 
ever false,  of  the  existing  "  law,"  i.e.  a  simulacrum  of 
justice.  What  is  even  more  serious  than  these  denials  of 
justice,  is  the  replacing  of  these  laws  by  new  laws,  which 
destroy  the  indispensable  guarantees  for  the  preservation 
of,  be  it  only  theoretical,  confidence  on  the  part  of  the 
accused  persons.  Under  Muravieff,  no  fewer  than  706 
"laws"  have  been  promulgated,  with  a  view  of  limiting 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Assizes  which  the  Senate  and 
Council  of  the  Empire  have  not  ventured  to  abolish  at 
one  fell  swoop.  This  has  resulted,  among  a  crowd  of 
other  abominations,  in  the  fact  that  in  all  trials  from 
which  the  Bureaucrats  might  derive  some  unpleasant- 
ness, the  Assizes  sit  without  a  jury,  so  that  officials  are 
only  judged  by  their  own  comrades  and  accomplices. 
But  there  is  worse  to  come. 

The  publicity  of  the  proceedings  at  the  Assizes  was 
annoying,  especially  in  political  cases.  Alexander  III., 
who  became  more  and  more  terrified  by  the  machina- 
tions of  the  Oligarchy,  authorised  the  occult  directors 
to  find  some  safer  method.  A  regulation,  elaborated 
by  Plehve  and  Muravieff,  officially  sanctioned  conviction 
without  trial,  for  political  offences.  This  was  not  even  a 
"  law "  in  the  Russian  sense,  merely  a  "  provisory 
decree."  The  tacit  permission  of  the  Tsar  was  sufficient. 
The  Senate  and  Council  of  the  Empire  were  shelved. 
The  illegality,  in  spite  of  their  mild  protests,  became  a 
new  right  !  Plehve,  Muravieff,  Pobiedonostsefif,  and  the 
Chief  of  Secret  Police,  these  four,  arrogated  to  them- 
selves the   monstrous    privilege   of  pronouncing,  on    a 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      245 

mere  police  report,  penalties  amounting  to  as  much  as 
five  years  of  deportation,  with  subsequent  relegation  to 
the  uttermost  ends  of  Siberia — one  of  the  severest 
punishments  in  the  Penal  Code.  In  reality,  the  Penal 
Code  was  abolished  henceforward  in  favour  of  the  four 
conspirators.  Thanks  to  this  law,  thousands  of  the  best 
citizens  of  Russia,  the  most  courageous  and  the  most 
intelligent,  but  for  that  very  reason  the  most  suspect, 
have  been  buried  alive  in  Siberia,  or  thrown  into  prison, 
often  on  the  sole  denunciation  of  a  discontented  house- 
porter  (the  porters  are  nominated  by  the  police).  And 
what  "  reform  "  has  been  invented  by  the  Bureaucracy 
to  remedy  this  state  of  things .''  It  has  organised  a  law, 
a  legal  law,  which  has  officially  organised  and  aggravated 
these  very  monstrosities.  There  exists  no  better  con- 
demnation of  the  Bureaucracy  than  the  Confidential 
Report  on  this  question  addressed  by  Muravieff,  after 
Supreme  Authorisation,  to  the  Council  of  the  Empire, 
on  February  10,  1904,  as  follows  : 

"  The  defects  of  the  legislation  in  respect  of  procedure 
in  the  preliminary  examination  of  political  cases  have 
long  been  known,  and  yet  they  have  so  far  remained 
unrepealed. 

"  These  defects,  however,  are  now  more  obvious  than 
ever  on  account  of  the  considerable  recrudescence  of  the 
socialist-revolutionary  propaganda  during  the  last  few 
years. 

"  The  number  of  political  crimes  which  crop  up 
annually  has  in  consequence  been  augmented  in  an 
extraordinary  degree.  It  is  impossible  to  pass  on 
without  calling  attention  to  this  particular  circumstance, 
i.e.  that  the  authorisation  (introduced  by  the  law  of 
May  19,  1 87 1,  as  a  provisory  measure)  to  decide  certain 
political  affairs,  in  certain  cases,  by  administrative  order 


246  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

instead  of  deferring  them  to  the  Tribunals  (as  is  exacted 
by  the  legal  enactments  of  the  year  1864),  has  been 
transformed  in  practice  into  a  general  law,  save  in  a  few 
very  rare  exceptions. 

"  A  striking  picture  of  the  situation  is  given  by  the 
statistics  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  Ministry  of 
Justice,  which  refer  to  the  political  crimes  of  the  years 
1894  to  1903." 

Then  follow  the  statistics.  The  Minister  shows  that 
between  1894  and  1903  the  number  of  "political 
criminals"  has  risen  from  1,500  to  12,000,  more  than 
6,000  of  whom  had  been  sued  "  by  personal  order  of  the 
Tsar"  without  recourse  to  any  organs  of  justice  !  The 
"deportations  without  judgment  "  alone  have  during  the 
last  year  amounted  to  more  than  1,500,  as  against  55 
in  1894.  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  whole  of 
these  statistics  deal  only  with  the  "crimes  "  with  which 
the  Ministry  of  Justice  has  had  to  occupy  itself.  They 
are  silent  as  to  the  tens  of  thousands  of  convictions  on 
"  sealed  orders  "  from  the  police,  issued  by  the  Ministry 
of  the  Interior.  The  latter  has  swooped  down  without 
control  upon  all  suspected  persons  of  whom  absolutely 
nothing  can  be  alleged  judicially.  According  to  the 
figures  divulged  in  Plehve's  lists,  the  number  of  these 
unfortunates  amounted  in  the  single  year  of  1903  to 
64,000  persons  !  Muravieff  admits  that  all  this  is  a 
deviation  from  the  fundamental  principles  of  Russian 
justice,  and  continues  his  demonstration  as  follows  : 

"  It  results  from  these  data,  firstly,  that  the  number  of 
political  cases  has  increased  in  the  last  ten  years  in  an 
enormous  proportion,  and  secondly,  that  all  these  cases, 
with  extremely  few  exceptions,  have  been  settled  by 
administrative  order.  It  is  notable  that,  during  the 
period  extending  from  1894  to  1901,  no  political  case  was 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      247 

referred  to  the  Tribunals  according  to  the  regulations  of 
our  Code  of  Criminal  Procedure.  It  was  not  until  1902 
that  three  cases,  and  in  1903  twelve  cases,  were  referred 
to  the  Mixed  Tribunals,  with  representatives  of  the 
different  orders.  With  regard  to  cases  referred  in  virtue 
of  exceptional  laws  to  the  Military  Tribunals,  their 
number  is  insignificant,  and  does  not  exceed  three  to 
five  per  annum.  It  is  also  necessary  to  remark  that  the 
number  of  suits  instituted  by  His  Imperial  Majesty,  which 
in  1894  was  only  fifty-six,  has  increased  in  1903  to  i,533, 
that  is  twenty-seven  times. 

"  This  state  of  things,  in  which  the  administrative 
solution  is  becoming  the  normal  mode  of  settling  political 
cases,  while  the  judicial  solution  is  now  the  exception,  can 
only  be  regarded  as  a  deviation  from  the  fundamental 
idea  that  guided  the  legislative  power,  not  merely  at  the 
moment  when  the  juristic  statutes  of  1864  were  compiled, 
but  even  at  the  promulgation  of  the  law  of  May  19,  1871. 

"  This  state  of  things,  however,  has  acquired  a  consi- 
derable extension  in  consequence  of  defects  of  procedure 
in  matters  concerning  State  crimes,  and  defects  of  our 
criminal  legislation  in  general. 

"  For  this  reason,  we  propose  the  following  legal 
recommendations : 

"  I.  Affairs  for  which  the  preliminary  examination 
has  terminated  shall  be  transferred  to  the  Cabinet  of  the 
Public  Prosecutor  of  the  Court  of  Appeal  {Sudebna'ia 
Palatd).  The  Public  Prosecutor  shall  present  his  con- 
clusions to  the  Minister  of  Justice,  save  in  the  cases  in 
which  the  law  permits  him  to  enter  a  non-suit.  The 
Minister  of  Justice  will  either  give  a  judicial  sequence  to 
the  case,  or  will  grant  the  indictment  after  reference  to 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  if  the  preliminary  inquiry 
seem  to  him  to  give  insufficient  data  for  bringing   the 


248  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

accused  before  the  Tribunals,  or  else  he  will  put  the  affair 
into  the  hands  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  in  cases  in 
which  juristic  proof  of  the  political  crime  is  wanting,  but 
where  there  is  evidence  of  subversive  political  ideas :  in 
this  last  case,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  will  apply  the 
articles  34-36  of  the  Regulations  of  Public  Safety  ; 

2.  In  cases  where,  for  exceptional  reasons,  the  Minis- 
ter of  Justice  shall  deem  it  useful  to  remove  a  political 
case  from  the  ordinary  course  of  Justice,  he  may,  after 
conferring  with  his  colleague,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
solicit  from  His  Majesty  an  order  to  terminate  it  by 
administrative  measures  ; 

3.  In  the  case  in  which  affairs  are  referred  to  the 
Tribunals,  the  Prosecutor  will  be  obliged  to  follow  the 
procedure  of  the  Assize  Courts  sitting  without  Jury." 

This  document  is  of  double  importance  :  on  the  one 
hand,  it  proves  the  enormous  extension  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary Movement  since  1894  (Witte's  r^zV«^)  in  Russia  ; 
on  the  other,  it  admirably  describes  the  character  of  the 
"  regime  of  legality,"  which,  even  where  it  professes  to 
put  an  end  to  illegal  procedure,  has  contented  itself  with 
simply  sanctioning  and  legalising  the  existing  illegality. 

This  accordingly  is  the  way  in  which  "justice"  is  to 
be  secured  by  bureaucratic  reform.  It  must  be  added 
that  in  the  legal  recommendations  drawn  up  according 
to  this  report,  Muravieff  has  further  specified  that  if,  by 
chance,  the  Tribunals  should  after  all  be  forced  to  deal 
with  political  crimes,  they  may  "  drop  down  three  rungs 
upon  the  ladder  of  degrees  of  crime,"  in  relation  to  the 
crime  indicated  as  the  cause  of  indictment  by  the  Minis- 
ter ;  in  other  words,  they  are  in  any  case  forbidden  to 
pronounce  an  acquittal  where  the  Minister  has  indicated 
any  sort  of  misdemeanour. 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      249 


Judicial  Prevarication. 

This  promising  specimen  of  judicial  reform  has  con- 
siderable symptomatic  value.  It  shows  that  the  Bureau- 
cracy is  able  to  introduce  laws  for  the  personal  benefit 
of  its  functionaries.  Its  authors,  Plehve  and  Mura- 
vieff,  had  they  remained  in  power,  might  easily  have 
freed  themselves  with  this  weapon  from  no  matter  what 
adversary,  political  or  otherwise,  making  use  of  it  at  the 
same  time  as  an  invaluable  instrument  for  blackmail. 
Analogous  methods  have  been  employed  in  every  domain 
of  the  administration  to  legalise  the  arbitrary  executive 
which  more  particularly  facilitates  blackmail  and  corrup- 
tion. The  Russian  people  has  learned  this  from  various 
sensational  cases.  The  two  most  curious,  involving  the 
Ministers  themselves,  will  show  conclusively  that  the 
"  moral  crisis  "  is  identical  with  the  "  political  crisis." 

The  first  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  Barantsevitch 
Case.  It  is  quite  straightforward.  Barantsevitch,  a 
magistrate,  had  confiscated  15,000  roubles  illegally  in 
an  administrative  action  of  which  he  conducted  the 
preliminaries.  The  person  from  whom  he  had  con- 
fiscated them,  proved  innocent  of  any  peculation, 
reclaimed  his  money.  This  money  had  disappeared. 
The  Justice  was  inculpated  and  condemned  for  corrup- 
tion. But  he  was  able  to  prove  by  means  of  letters  of 
exchange  that  it  was  the  Minister  Muravieff  who  had 
received  the  money.  The  Tribunal  declared  it  to  be  a 
personal  affair  that  was  not  its  concern,  and  made  the 
State  repay  the  15,000  roubles  to  the  heir.  The  Justice 
was  pardoned,  and  rewarded  by  a  scandalous  prefer- 
ment ;  he  was  appointed  Public  Prosecutor  at  Irkutsk! 

The  second  definitive   case,  which  finally  upset  the 


250  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Ministry  itself,  not  without  discrediting  the  Court  of 
Appeal  besides,  is  a  veritable  repertory  of  all  the  argu- 
ments that  a  system  can  engender  against  itself  This 
is  the  Lubarski-Pismenni  Case.  This  man,  a  Privy 
Councillor  and  noted  capitalist,  was  Vice-President  of  a 
Banking  Syndicate  at  Kharkoff,  which  found  itself  in 
1900,  at  the  height  of  the  industrial  crisis,  in  a  very 
difficult  situation.  The  Syndicate  demanded  authorisa- 
tion to  raise  an  emergency  loan.  Upon  the  refusal  of 
Witte,  based  on  the  malicious  reports  sent  by  his  local 
representative,  a  stipendiary  of  the  Riabuchinski,  the 
President  of  the  Syndicate  committed  suicide.  The 
shares  fell  from  300  per  cent,  in  a  week,  and  the 
Riabuchinski,  bankers  of  doubtful  reputation  at  Moscow, 
bought  them  up  at  a  low  price  in  order  to  retain  the 
commanding  interest.  They  called  an  extraordinary 
general  meeting  at  which,  in  order  to  secure  the 
majority,  they  made  thirty  of  their  employes  figure 
fraudulently  as  shareholders,  a  crime  which  by  Russian 
law  should  have  invalidated  the  whole  proceeding. 
This  bogus  meeting  elected  the  Riabuchinski  to  the 
Council  of  Administration,  and  indicted  Lubarski  and 
the  other  retiring  members  for  fraudulent  bankruptcy, 
whereas  they  had  not  even  failed  !  An  odious  tragedy 
was  forthwith  enacted  ! 

In  order  to  eliminate  Lubarski  and  his  friends  from 
the  Syndicate,  their  conviction  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary ;  this,  inter  alia,  entailed  the  repayment  by  the 
culprits  of  the  entire  loss,  ;^240,ooo,  although  when  the 
panic  was  over,  the  Funds  of  the  Syndicate,  which 
chiefly  handled  mortgaged  property,  were  found  to 
recover  their  former  value.  Conviction  was,  however, 
absolutely  impossible,  on  any  show  of  justice.  The 
Riabuchinski  then  disbursed  ;^30,000  in  order  to  elicit  a 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      251 

formal  pledge  from  the  Minister  Muraviefif  that  convic- 
tion should  be  given.  The  Minister  steered  his  Magis- 
trates accordingly.  Lubarski  was  arrested,  and  kept 
in  secret  durance  for  ten  months  ;  no  document  relating 
to  the  charge  was  shown  him  ;  he  was  entirely  ignorant 
of  the  nature  of  the  precise  accusation  hanging  over 
him.  The  trial  before  the  Assizes  was  fixed  for  April, 
1902.  The  defendants  were  beginning  to  prepare  their 
case,  when,  after  eight  days'  sitting,  the  Minister  ordered 
an  immediate  hearing.  The  defence,  without  documents 
or  possibility  of  preparation,  was  strangled.  The 
Minister  despatched  a  Special  Agent,  Chtcheglovitoff, 
with  special  orders  for  the  conduct  of  the  trial  ;  the  jury 
consisted  partly  of  absolutely  illiterate  individuals,  in  a 
matter  in  which  everything  turned  on  the  solvency  of  a 
House  of  Credit  of  the  first  rank !  The  Court  recog- 
nised the  fact  of  the  illegality  of  the  bogus  meeting,  but 
added  that  special  reasons  (the  Order  of  the  Minister) 
obliged  them  to  pass  this  over.  The  suborning  of  the 
witnesses  employed  by  the  Riabuchinskis  was  proved  ; 
the  refusal  of  the  Court  to  obtain  the  fundamental 
documents  for  the  defence  from  various  administrations 
was  proved  ;  the  evidence  of  Witte,  Minister  of  Finance, 
was  withheld.  It  was  proved  that  the  jury  was  suborned 
by  scandalous  indemnities,  and  that  it  deliberated  under 
the  eye  of  Chtcheglovitoff. 

Lubarski  and  five  other  innocent  victims  were  con- 
demned to  prison,  and  their  total  fortunes,  ;!^8oo,ooo, 
were  sequestrated  in  order  to  guarantee  that  the  loss  of 
;^240,ooo  would  be  covered  ;  by  this  measure  they  were 
prevented  from  taking  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Syndicate, 
which  was  handed  over  to  Muscovite  swindlers.  The 
unfortunate  victims  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court. 
The  Tsar,  alarmed  by  a  report  from  Witte,  ordered  that 


252 


RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 


the  criminals  should  previously  be  set  at  liberty. 
Muraviefif  was  fully  conscious  of  the  crime  committed. 
As  for  the  rewards  distributed  by  the  happy  Minister 
to  his  servile  officials,  they  can  be  read  in  the  following 
list,  which  includes  all  the  Magistrates  who  took  part 
in  the  Trial,  with  the  nice  preferments  they  obtained 
soon  after  : 

1.  Davidoff,  Public  Prosecutor  at  Kharkoff,  appointed 
First  President  of  the  Court  of  Appeal  at  Odessa. 

2.  Sokalski,  Junior  Public  Prosecutor,  appointed 
Prosecutor  at  Novocherkassk.  (Author  of  the  fraudu- 
lent act  of  accusation.) 

3.  Dublanski,  Junior  Prosecutor,  gratified  by  the 
Order  of  Stanislas  of  the  First  Class,  and  ennobled. 

4.  Deliaroff,  Public  Prosecutor,  appointed  Councillor 
to  the  Court  of  Appeal  of  S.  Petersburg.  (Sanctioned 
the  illegal  accusation  of  the  prisoners.) 

5.  Snopko,  Junior  Prosecutor,  appointed  President  of 
the  Court  of  Simferopol. 

6.  Laiming,  Justice  of  the  Peace,  rewarded  by  a  deco- 
ration, and  ennobled.  (He  had  arbitrarily  arrested  the 
prisoners.) 

7.  Yuchneffski,  Special  Magistrate  for  important 
affairs,  attached  to  the  Court  of  Moscow,  appointed 
Junior  Public  Prosecutor  at  Kharkoff.  (Conducted  the 
preliminary  investigation  by  special  order  of  the 
Minister  Muravieff,  after  conducting  the  great  Mantoff 
peculation  case  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Minister,  that 
is,  so  as  virtually  to  acquit  the  milliardaire  Mamantoff, 
who  was  indicted  for  having  embezzled  enormous  .sums 
for  the  construction  of  a  railway,  which  he  never  built.) 

8.  Podgurski,  Examiner,  assistant  to  the  preceding, 
appointed  Magistrate. 

9.  Ananieffski,  Imperial  Councillor  at    the    Kharkoff 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      253 

Court,   promoted    to   a   similar   post,    but   with    better 
remuneration,  at   Moscow. 

10.  Krifftsoff,  Vice-President  of  the  Kharkoff  Court, 
appointed  President  of  the  Novochertrassk  Court. 

11.  Hubert,  Councillor  at  the  Kharkoff  Court, 
appointed  President  of  the  Vitebsk  Court,  ennobled 
and  decorated  with  a  valuable  order.  (Was  reporter  of 
the  case  for  the  Kharkoff  Court.) 

12.  Krestianoff,  Councillor  of  the  Kharkoff  Court, 
appointed  Privy  Councillor  to  the  Tsar,  for  "  special 
services."     (Presided  over  the  hearing  of  the  case.) 

13.  Cherniaffski,  First  President  of  the  Kharkoff 
Court,  appointed  Senator  for  the  Supreme  Department 
(where  the  case  was  brought  after  Appeal). 

14.  Pushkin,  First  Honorary  President  of  the  Khar- 
koff Court,  appointed  Senator  in  Supreme  Depart- 
ment. 

15.  Chtcheglovitoff  ("special  agent  to  the  Minister, 
delegated  for  management  and  direction  of  the  Trial "), 
appointed  Public  Prosecutor  to  the  Senate  governing 
the  Department  of  the  Court  of  Appeal. 

The  bare  sight  of  this  list  discovers  unsuspected 
horizons  in  what  Muravieff  has  made  of  Russian  justice. 
Yet  even  this  was  not  all.  Chtcheglovitoff,  appointed 
Public  Prosecutor  to  the  Court  of  Appeal,  concluded  by 
the  mouth  of  his  Deputy  to  reject  the  appeal  in  this 
case,  which  he  had  himself  conducted  at  the  Kharkoff 
Assizes.  The  appeal  was  quashed.  The  Tsar  grew  more 
and  more  alarmed,  but  instead  of  ridding  the  country  of 
the  scamp  Muravieff  and  his  accomplices,  he  only 
interdicted  the  execution  of  the  penalties  pronounced, 
at  the  same  time  giving  the  innocent  victims  a  fresh 
chance  by  an  accessory  and  supplementary  trial,  which 
might  still  come  to  an  Appeal. 


254  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

The  peculators  held  their  ground.  MuraviefF  sent  his 
Private  Secretary  to  the  fresh  hearing,  who  proclaimed 
aloud  that  "  the  most  obvious  reasons  dictated  the 
necessary  overthrow  of  the  Appeal."  He  had  further, 
under  pretext  of  attempt  at  escape,  put  the  unhappy 
Lubarski,  broken,  blind,  and  suffering  from  cardiac 
trouble  in  consequence  of  his  moral  and  physical  suffer- 
ings, under  domiciliary  arrest.  With  the  accused 
muzzled  ;  the  Minister  threatening  ;  the  Court  terrorised 
and  partly  subsidised  beforehand,  the  result  was  certain 
— a  fresh  condemnation.  The  Tsar,  the  Autocrat  who 
was  alone  responsible  for  the  official  executive,  could 
only  weep !  In  order  to  discredit  the  omnipotent 
scoundrel,  it  was  necessary  to  resort  to  public  contempt. 
His  colleagues  refused  to  shake  hands  with  him.  At 
the  Imperial  Council,  forty  Councillors  addressed  him, 
smiling,  one  after  the  other,  "  What  are  they  saying  to- 
day, sir,  about  the  Barantsevitch  and  Lubarski  Cases  ?  " 
He  became  "  fatigued,"  and  the  trembling  Tsar  offered 
him  the  Embassy  at  Rome.  .  .  .  The  Moral  Crisis  may 
not  be  a  political  crisis  !  But  the  Lubarski  Case  showed 
that  it  has  at  least  a  serious  economic  side. 

The  General  Corruption. 

The  arbitrary  executive  of  the  Bureaucracy  sanctioned 
by  the  law  does  not  serve  political  aims  or  ambitions 
alone.  In  the  first  place,  and  above  all,  it  has  to  provide 
adequate  revenues  for  the  Bureaucrats,  drawn  from 
public  or  private  coffers.  Corruption  de  haut  en  bas  is 
its  chief  preoccupation.  In  gauging  the  extent  of  this 
sport,  it  is  apparent  that  the  moral  crisis  is  seriously 
complicated  by  an  economic  crisis,  for  the  funds  that 
are  annually  embezzled  figure  into  hundreds  of  millions. 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      255 

It  is  more  especially  in  the  Army,  Navy,  and  Public 
Works  that  corruption  has  its  stronghold,  firstly  on 
account  of  the  enormous  sums  employed  by  these  ad- 
ministrations, secondly  because,  in  the  eyes  of  simple 
citizens,  a  blind  faith  in  professional  honesty  attaches 
readily  enough  to  the  title  General  or  Admiral.  The 
encouragement  to  corruption  provided  by  the  tacit  con- 
sent of  the  Tsar  and  the  practices  of  the  Grand  Dukes 
is  the  less  an  excuse  since  these  are  the  Autocrats  whose 
will  is  law,  whereas  the  others  are  but  well-salaried 
valets. 

The  amplitude  of  the  Bureaucratic  prevarications  is 
worthy  of  notice,  since  these,  even  more  than  those  of 
the  Grand  Dukes,  have  become  a  powerful  lever  of  the 
popular  discontent.  The  expansion  in  Asia  has  given 
them  an  admirable  lift.  We  have  seen  that  Bezobrazoff 
and  Alexeiefif  drained  850  millions  for  the  organisation 
of  Manchuria,  which  have  gone — no  one  knows  where. 
The  engineers  have  played  their  part.  On  Lake  Baikal, 
for  instance,  special  and  very  costly  wharves  have  been 
constructed  in  places  where  the  spring  gales  destroy 
them  annually.  They  are  reconstructed  year  by  year  as 
lightly  as  possible,  while  expending  the  credit  given  for 
a  permanent  construction  ;  hence  there  is  a  profit  of 
;^ 1 20,000  per  annum  for  the  engineers.  At  Dalny,  the 
famous  "  ice-free  "  port  alongside  Port  Arthur,  which 
now  belongs  to  Japan,  the  engineers  desired  to  set  up  an 
immense  breakwater,  for  protection  against  the  high 
waves,  at  a  cost  of  nearly  ;^2,ooo,ooo.  i^8oo,ooo  were 
spent,  the  remainder  disappeared  when  the  work  was 
broken  off — a  decision  arrived  at  when  it  was  discovered 
that  the  breakwater  did  indeed  check  the  force  of  the 
waves,  but  equally  gave  facility  to  the  cold  to  congeal 
the  becalmed  water.     Accordingly,  the   Port   for  which 


256  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

the  whole  of  Manchuria  had  been  annexed,  and  which  is 
now  frozen  up  for  six  months  of  the  year,  was  destroyed 
with  embezzlement  of  over  a  million.  Another  in- 
stance : 

The  Vostotchnoie  Obozrienie  of  Irkutsk  published  the 
following  description  of  the  state  of  the  famous  Circum- 
Baikal  Railway  inaugurated  with  so  much  reclame  on 
September  17,  1904  : — "  The  first  trains  left  the  station 
of  Kultusk  on  September  17.  It  took  them  three  days 
to  traverse  the  seventy  miles  of  the  line.  Tunnel  No.  10 
is  an  absolute  barrier  to  the  circulation  of  passenger 
traffic.  A  mistake  was  made  over  the  height  of  this 
tunnel,  and  the  carriages  cannot  pass  through  it.  A 
pioneer  train  attempted  to  get  through,  but  all  the 
funnels  and  ventilators  were  torn  off.  The  same  train 
left  the  lines  ten  times.  The  line  cost  one  and  a  half 
million  pounds,  to  which  as  much  again  must  be  added, 
'  for  the  acceleration  of  its  construction.'  Result :  the 
line  remains  absolutely  useless,  and  during  the  winter 
months  the  lake  will  be  crossed  as  before,  by  sledges 
drawn  over  the  ice  by  horses.  The  Government  has 
lately  acquired  a  thousand  horses  for  this  purpose." 

Commentary  would  but  weaken  this  interesting  piece 
of  information.  It  will  only  astonish  those  who  are 
ignorant  of  the  manner  in  which  all  the  Trans-Baikal 
and  Trans-Manchurian  lines  have  been  constructed. 
Russia  did  still  better  after  1900.  At  that  time  the 
engineers,  in  order  to  hide  their  prevarications,  caused 
the  most  compromising  parts  of  the  line  to  be  destroyed 
by  Chung  Chuses,  whose  co-operation  can  always  be 
secured  for  a  few  roubles,  but  they  subsequently  learned 
how  to  brag  of  their  address.  Their  Grand  Chief,  Prince 
Khilkoff,  blandished  them  in  person,  and  congratulated 
himself  complacently  on  their  great  technical  capability. 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      257 

As  he  directed  the  work  himself,  we  may  be  sure  that 
he  would  not  have  been  so  cruel  as  to  send  a  Commis- 
sion of  Inquiry  to  the  Trans-Baikal,  as  happened  in 
1900. 

The  Army  of  Thieves  and  Traitors. 

In  the  Military  and  Naval  Departments  these  crimes 
are  even  more  reprehensible,  because  they  are  so  easily 
complicated  by  acts  of  real  treason,  especially  in  time 
of  war.  They  are  now  reported  from  all  sides  in  an 
alarming  degree.  The  mere  management  of  the  Com- 
missariat enabled  the  Generalissimo  Kuropatkin  to 
amass  a  personal  fortune  of  over  6  million  roubles  by 
January,  1905,  as  is  shown  by  his  catalogue  of  depots 
and  appointments.  At  the  same  time  he  addressed  a 
despairing  despatch  to  the  Tsar  on  December  26,  1904, 
pointing  out  the  destitution  of  his  troops,  the  total  lack, 
after  four  months  of  winter,  of  warm  clothing,  the 
scandalous  inferiority  in  quantity  and  quality  of 
victuals,  and  the  disastrous  slowness  of  the  transports. 
This  despatch  ends  with  the  words  : — 

"  As  long  as  the  Commissariat  is  not  thoroughly 
reorganised  from  end  to  end,  I  shall  remain  fatally 
immobilised,  and  I  shall  be  incapacitated  for  receiving 
new  reinforcements,  which,  as  they  cannot  be  provi- 
sioned, would  only  be  a  dead  weight." 

The  Generals  and  Officers  on  campaign  have  levied 
enormous  percentages  on  the  subsidies  confided  to 
them.  The  fund  for  the  mobilisation  of  the  districts 
of  Minsk  and  Mohileff  has  been  entirely  looted  :  else- 
where the  same  has  occurred  in  great  measure,  so  that 
the  reservists,  who  were  called  out  and  are  dying  of 
starvation,  have  revolted  everywhere,  and  gone  over  to 
the   ranks  of  the  revolutionaries.     The   Governors  and 

S 


258  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

Presidents  of  the  Red  Cross  Societies  have  embezzled 
millions.  General  Sukhomlinoff,  the  Governor-General 
of  Kieff,  alone  has  (as  was  proved  by  an  official  inquiry) 
laid  hands  on  ^^24,000,  by  falsifying  his  accounts,  and 
diverting  the  capital  to  his  private  balance.  Alexan- 
drovski,  Administrator-General  of  the  Red  Cross,  a  very 
intimate  friend  of  the  Empress-Dowager,  who  is  already 
famed  for  having,  in  1898,  embezzled  the  funds  that 
were  intended  to  relieve  the  famine  in  the  south  of  the 
country,  has  enriched  himself  in  a  scandalous  fashion. 
And  what  can  be  said  for  the  Navy  ? 

There,  not  only  is  10  per  cent,  levied  as  everywhere, 
on  all  the  commands,  but  these  are  even  impeded  in 
order  to  get  more  plunder.  When  the  question  came 
up  of  buying  the  Argentine  cruisers,  whose  presence 
might  have  reversed  the  whole  course  of  events,  all 
serious  offers  were  quashed  by  Admiral  Rojdestvenski 
and  Staff-major  Virenius,  because  they  were  determined 
only  to  negotiate  with  an  American  firm  which  had 
promised  them  enormous  commissions  upon  this  affair 
of  i^3, 000,000.  They  even  offered  ;^8,ooo  to  the  rest  to 
withdraw  from  the  competition.  The  other  competitors 
refused,  but  from  that  time  they  were  confronted  with 
absolute  inertia :  Russia  did  not  receive  the  ships,  and 
she  lost  the  war  !  The  famous  coal  depots  at  Chemulpo, 
the  protection  of  which,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  cost 
Russia  the  Varyag  and  the  Koreets^  and  which  cost 
8,000,000  roubles,  never  existed.  Admiral  Virenius  set 
off  with  his  Squadron,  in  January,  1904,  without  guns, 
since  his  securities  had  been  stolen,  and  his  artillery 
was  sent  to  Vladivostok,  where  it  never  arrived.  All 
the  arsenals  were  empty.  The  scandal  was  so  great 
that  Admiral  Avellane,  the  Ministry's  representative, 
was  forced,  in  order  to  put  them  on  the  wrong  scent,  to 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      259 

punish,  not  the  abominable  swindlers  of  the  capital,  but 
the  officials  at  Odessa,  who  had  never  received  the 
securities  destined  for  the  arsenals  and  coal-depots  of 
their  city  ! 

The  mysterious  affair  of  the  treason  of  Colonel  Grimm 
is  an  admirable  instance  of  the  prevailing  situation. 
This  officer  had  sold  all  the  plans  of  the  Polish  for- 
tresses, the  plans  of  general  mobilisation,  and  even 
the  secrets  of  the  French  Staff  communicated  to  the 
Russian  Minister  of  War,  to  Germany  and  Austria. 
The  sums  acquired  in  this  fashion  amounted  to  over 
;^200,C)00.  Grimm  was  unlucky  at  the  moment  of  his 
arrest.  At  the  trial,  instituted  after  a  too-zealous 
police-officer  had  discovered  the  crime  by  means  of  a 
letter  addressed  to  a  lady  at  Nice,  Grimm  declared  aloud  : 
"  I  am  guilty,  but  three-quarters  of  you  deserve  to  be  at 
my  side  on  this  bench."  He  attested  the  complicity  of 
several  Commandants  of  fortresses,  of  Governor-General 
Chertkoff,  of  Staff-Major-General  Pusyrevski,  of  General 
Herchelmann,  and  of  a  number  of  superior  officers.  At 
the  close  of  the  proceedings  he  expressed  himself  as 
follows :  "  If  you  want  the  Russian  Army  to  be  fit  for 
war,  you  must  throw  all  the  Generals  into  prison  with- 
out exception."  The  effect  upon  the  Tsar  was  crushing. 
Matters  were  arranged  with  the  scapegoat  ;  he  agreed 
to  swear,  as  an  afterthought,  that  the  documents  sold  to 
him  were  false.  He  was,  therefore,  only  condemned  to 
a  few  years'  imprisonment,  and  the  Tsar  was  comforted. 
The  war  has  none  the  less  proved  that  Grimm  was  right. 
In  the  month  of  June,  1904,  one  of  the  highest  person- 
ages in  Europe  assured  the  author  that  of  i^3 20,000 
which  the  war  was  then  costing  daily,  a  fifth  part  must 
be  reckoned  as  lost  in  the  pockets  of  the  officials. 

The  war  has  had  the  merit  of  exposing   this  moral 

S  2 


26o  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

depravity  before  the  eyes  of  the  whole  nation.  This 
corruption,  from  being  a  moral,  has,  in  virtue  of  its  very 
exaggeration,  become  an  economic  fact.  It  is  perfectly 
true  that  the  economic  crisis  has  been  produced  inde- 
pendent of  corruption  ;  but  this  last  factor  has  convinced 
the  people  that  its  material  misery  is  also  in  great 
measure  attributable  to  the  established  political  adminis- 
tration. The  nation  has  thus  been  brought  to  seek  an 
issue  of  its  economic  distress  in  the  political  reforms 
that  can  alone,  by  Parliamentary  control,  save  if  only  the 
fifth  part  of  the  budget  that  is  annually  misappropriated 
by  its  Governors, 

The  Social  Crisis. 

The  annihilation  of  the  law  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Bureaucracy,  along  with  Great  Russian  oppression,  which 
have  crushed  out  all  liberty  of  thought,  of  faith,  or  of 
action,  and  eventually  the  growing  misery  contingent  on 
the  economic  megalomania  of  Witte's  regime,  have  re- 
sulted by  the  sum  total  of  their  effect  upon  the  mind 
of  the  people  in  a  profound  upheaval  of  the  social 
structure. 

The  amorphous  mass  of  the  Tsar's  subjects  differen- 
tiated itself  in  proportion  as  the  consciousness  of  the 
causes  whence  came  its  misfortunes  penetrated  the  more 
instructed  classes  of  the  mob.  And  each  new  element 
of  the  population  as  it  became  conscious  immediately 
entered  into  an  opposition  of  growing  fierceness  against 
the  Administration. 

Naturally,  the  liberal  professions,  the  university  classes, 
the  amateurs  of  the  civilised  countries  were  the  first 
enemies  of  Tsardom.  They  were  so  in  a  literary  way, 
theoretically,  even  more  than  from  exasperation.  It  is 
among  these,  and  these  alone,  that  "  nihilism,"  and  later 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      261 

on  terrorism,  have  been  cultivated.  It  is  these  also  who 
have  been  the  missionaries  to  the  crowds  who  have 
remained  unconscious,  and  who  have,  in  last  resort, 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  people. 

Their  ranks  were  swelled  by  the  commercial  middle- 
classes.  Timid  here  as  everywhere,  these  rallied  to  the 
opposition,  not  from  theory,  but  in  defence  of  their 
material  and  moral  interests,  which  were  seriously  com- 
promised by  the  bureaucratic  executive.  Their  passions 
were  for  the  rest  as  moderate  as  their  demands,  because 
they  realised  little  by  little  the  probability  of  a  new 
fight,  to  be  sustained  against  their  own  economic  victims, 
a  social  fight,  the  prospect  of  which  made  them  desirous 
for  strong  Government  authorities.  The  bourgeoisie 
indeed  became  constitutionalists,  but  undoubtedly  with 
the  secret  hope  of  substituting  the  regime  (less  reprehen- 
sible, but  equally  hard  on  the  lower  classes)  of  capitalist 
"progressivism,"  for  bureaucratic  arbitrament.  It  even 
allied  itself  temporarily  with  Tsardom,  in  order  not  to 
compromise  its  entry  into  power,  cried  up  a  patriotism  of 
a  kind  profitable  to  "  business,"  and  only  allied  itself 
definitively  with  the  other  revolted  classes  when  it  per- 
ceived that  the  Autocracy  treated  it  no  better  than  the 
socialists,  terrorists,  and  peasants. 

These  two  elements,  the  intellectuals  and  the 
capitalists,  were  condemned  to  impotence  so  long  as 
they  remained  without  support  from  below.  Generally 
speaking,  the  subjugated  mob  of  the  peoples  are  only 
made  aware  of  their  moral  and  material  situation  in 
proportion  with  the  increase  of  the  proletariat,  which  on 
its  side  is  invariably  accompanied  by  ardent  intellectual 
emulation.  Witte's  system  assisted  powerfully  in  this 
development.  The  first  inauguration  of  factories  and 
highways  of   communication    provoked    an    exodus    of 


262  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

famished  peasants  towards  the  industrial  centres.  This 
new  artisan  class  was,  in  fact,  in  a  situation  analogous 
with  that  of  the  artisans  of  civilised  countries,  with  this 
difference,  that  their  salaries  (at  a  maximum  of  about 
half-a-crown  for  the  most  skilled)  were  infinitely- 
lower,  and  their  material  conditions  infinitely  worse 
(under-feeding,  working-day  varying  from  twelve  to 
eighteen  hours,  absence  of  all  hygienic  conditions  in 
the  factories,  common  habitations  with  an  average  of 
four  tenants  to  each  room  [including  their  families], 
epidemics,  police  annoyances,  especially  in  the  matter  of 
passports).  This  misery  might  not  have  counterbalanced 
the  long  experience  by  which  the  western  artisans 
have  profited  in  organising  their  industrial  proletariat. 
It  was,  however,  represented  by  certain  ancient  and 
essentially  Russian  institutions.  On  the  one  hand, 
the  w/z'r,  or  communal  proprietorship  in  the  villages  of 
Great  Russia,  whose  function  will  be  explained  below, 
had  bequeathed  to  those  who  were  forsaking  it  a  sense 
of  association  ;  on  the  other,  the  artele,  or  co-operative 
society  of  artisans,  which  had  existed  for  centuries,  had 
not  only  endowed  the  working-men  with  a  very  real 
talent  for  association,  but  had  further  evoked  among  the 
masses  of  the  industrial  proletariat  the  infinitely  more 
important  idea  of  co-operation,  which  could  be  trans- 
ferred to  industries  on  a  large  scale  ;  in  other  words. 
Socialism.  It  was  only  necessary  to  apply  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  the  artele  and  the  mir  to  industrial 
conditions  in  order  to  bring  the  proletariat  to  concep- 
tions practically  analogous  with  Marxism.  The  political 
idea  to  which  the  latter  tended  was  alone  lacking.  It 
was  grafted  on  to  the  existing  attitude  of  mind  by  the 
Intellectuals,  the  same  anti-tsarist  class  that  had  given 
birth    to    Nihilism.     The    work    took    all    the    longer 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      263 

inasmuch  as  the  artisans  still  belonged  in  reality  to  the 
peasant  caste,  illiterate,  brutalised  by  a  body  of  clergy 
who  represented  Tsardom  as  the  Visible  Form  of 
Divine  Authority.  But  the  more  and  more  obvious 
misdeeds  of  the  Administration  facilitated  the  task.  And 
so  Marxian  Socialism,  with  its  political  aims,  issued  from 
the  Patriarchal  Socialism  of  the  Uncivilised  Slavs.  All 
that  was  left  for  the  latter  to  do  was  to  become  self- 
conscious  and  to  organise  itself 

It  was  about  1893  (era  of  Witte)  that  the  first  artisan 
organisation  was  constituted  at  St.  Petersburg  under 
the  name  of  "  Defensive  League  for  the  Emancipation 
of  the  Working  Classes."  Like  similar  associations 
founded  since  1891  in  other  countries,  it  was  not  intended 
to  be  very  numerous,  for  the  more  members  there  were 
the  greater  was  the  risk  of  treason.  At  first,  in  its 
earliest  days,  the  Association  included  150-200  members, 
all  active  agitators.  They  made  a  vigorous  propaganda 
among  the  artisans  of  the  Capital  in  order  to  obtain 
subscriptions.  Their  annual  budget  amounted  to  the 
sum  of  20,000  roubles,  and  from  the  outset  they  won  the 
sympathies  of  a  considerable  number  of  workmen. 
The  students  and  other  outsiders  interested  themselves 
in  the  Association,  and  aided  it  by  collections.  This 
had  to  be  done  with  the  utmost  circumspection,  since 
the  Government  exercised  strict  surveillance  upon  all 
the  actions  of  the  students  who  were  reported  Intel- 
lectuals, and,  therefore,  revolutionaries.  Balls  and  other 
fetes  were  organised  in  order  to  make  these  collections, 
but  were  attended  with  a  thousand  difficulties.  The 
police  devoted  particular  attention  to  the  accounts  of 
the  funds  received  at  the  students'  balls  ;  it  was  even 
difficult  to  dispose  of  the  money.  The  funds  were  often 
claimed  on  pretext  of  aiding  some  poor  artist,  a  family 


264  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

in  misfortune,  or  a  student  who  was  dying  of  phthisis. 
Many  society  women,  whose  ideas  were  Hberal,  sub- 
scribed to  one  or  other  of  these  objects,  knowing  perfectly 
well  what  the  money  was  destined  for.  Branches  of 
the  Union  were  established  at  Moscow,  Kieff,  Ekaterin- 
oslafif,  and  two  or  three  other  towns.  But  the  relations 
between  the  different  branches  were  ill-consolidated  ;  the 
principal  source  of  weakness  in  the  Russian  Artisan 
Associations  became  apparent — the  immense  distances, 
the  lack  and  insecurity  of  communication,  as  well  as  the 
subtle  system  of  police  espionage,  constituted  enormous 
difficulties  to  the  intra-relationship  of  the  groups  in  the 
different  cities. 

The  object  of  this  Union  was  to  ameliorate  the  material 
conditions  of  the  artisans,  to  obtain  higher  salaries,  shorter 
working-days,  and  better  lodging.  Politics  were  very 
little  discussed.  In  1896-7  the  Union  organised  the 
first  strike  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  which  thirty  thousand 
men  took  part.  This  strike  succeeded  to  a  certain  degree, 
since  different  Labour  Laws  were  subsequently  promul- 
gated, which  the  Government  saw  itself  compelled  to 
grant  for  fear  the  artisans  would  launch  into  political 
reclamations.  This  attested  the  power  of  the  Workmen's 
Union,  and  it  gained  an  incessantly  increasing  number 
of  members  and  partisans.  A  year  later,  there  was  no 
workman  in  certain  industries  who  did  not  read,  or  listen 
to  the  reading  of,  the  publications  of  the  Union.  A 
journal  was  founded  with  the  title,  T]ie  Industrial  Idea, 
written  entirely  by  working-men,  with  the  object  of 
developing  "  social  relations  "  and  solidarity  among  the 
workers.  It  attained  a  great  popularity,  although  the 
unlettered  state  of  the  great  majority  of  the  proletariat 
was  a  serious  obstacle  to  propaganda  by  means  of 
pamphlets,  the  Press,  or  leaflets.     In  1898  the  "  Russian 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      265 

Social  Democratic  Party  "  was  formed  :  from  the  outset 
it  showed  a  more  general  and  active  energy  than  the  old 
"  Defensive  League."  For  some  time  the  two  organisa- 
tions were  carried  on  side  by  side,  but  three  years  later 
all  sections  of  the  Union  were  incorporated  in  the  Social 
Democrat  Party,  as  subordinate  Committees.  Com- 
mittees were  also  instituted  in  other  towns,  but  even 
where  they  did  not  exist,  there  were  at  any  rate  pro- 
pagandising agents. 

During  this  time,  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  had 
evoked  the  creation  of  another  secret  society,  the  Bimd, 
the  object  of  which  was  to  organise  the  Jewish  artisans, 
and  which  flourished  more  particularly  on  the  frontier 
zones,  where  it  addressed  itself  with  great  success  to  the 
contraband  introduction  and  distribution  of  revolutionary 
literature,  destined  for  all  the  Russian  Organisations. 
The  excess  of  fiscal  bureaucratic  oppression  gradually 
transformed  the  Social  Democrats  into  a  political  party, 
although  the  Marxian  theory,  which  derives  all  progress 
from  industrial  development,  still  falsified  the  views  of 
its  chief  to  such  a  degree  that  the  group  entirely  lost 
touch  with  the  condition  of  the  peasants,  and  was  in 
violent  opposition  to  the  action  of  the  Socialist- 
Revolutionaries.  After  1900,  however,  the  trend  of 
political  events  showed  too  plainly  the  uselessness 
of  this  "  scientific  "  attitude.  The  party  discovered  that 
its  social  requisitions  would  remain  sterile  for  an 
indefinite  period,  without  political  action  against 
Tsardom,and  it  realised  that  the  introduction  of  a  more 
liberal  form  of  government  was  the  necessary  prelude  to 
its  true  propaganda. 

And  thus  the  Slav,  Polish,  Jewish  Proletariat,  as 
Marxians,  suddenly  embraced  the  political  tendencies 
already  advocated  by  the  bourgeoisie,  by  a  portion  of  the 


266  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

decadent  aristocracy,  and  still  more  by  the  revolutionary 
intellectuals.  While,  up  to  this  time,  these  last  social 
groups  had  had  a  monopoly  of  political  action,  the  entire 
industrial  proletariat  henceforward  participated  in  it. 
The  revolutionary  intellectuals,  vestiges,  or  new  strata 
raised  upon  the  vestiges,  of  the  older  nihilism  and  of  the 
group  which  directed  the  Norodnaia  Volya  (Will  of  the 
People),  had  on  their  side  been  working  on  the  basis 
of  political  revolution.  Under  the  name  of  "  revolution- 
ary socialism "  they  had  constituted  an  occult  party 
which  was  extremely  powerful,  less  from  its  numbers 
than  from  the  intellectual  and  moral  qualities  of  its 
adherents.  The  directly  active  group  of  this  party  is 
frankly  terrorist ;  while  awaiting  the  social  and  political 
revolution  that  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  mob 
whose  education  is  being  carried  on  by  an  admirably 
organised  propaganda,  this  group,  the  mysterious 
Boyevaya  Organisatsia,  has  prepared  the  downfall  of 
Tsardom  by  the  violent  elimination  of  the  individuals 
who  played  the  damaging  part  of  Directors  under  the 
Bureaucratic  regime.  All  the  sensational  outrages 
committed  since  1900  have  been  its  work  ;  and  while 
Wahl  and  Obolenski  have  escaped  death  by  the  clumsi- 
ness of  their  assailants,  the  murderers  of  Bogoliepoff, 
Sipiaguine,  Bogdanovitch,  Plehve,  and  Serge  have  had 
an  enormous  influence  upon  the  development  of  the 
crisis.  This  Party  has  really  assumed  the  guidance  of 
the  Movement  in  proportion  as  all  have  realised  that 
violence  alone  can  cope  with  the  violence  of  the 
Bureaucracy.  And  since  the  direction  of  the  group  is 
safe  from  treason — inasmuch  as  no  member  knows  more 
than  two  or  three  others — the  continuity  of  its  action  is 
better  guaranteed  than  that  of  any  other  party.  Its 
principal    work,   however,  and   that  which   determined 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      267 

the  ultimate  revolutionary  movement,  is  that  of  having 
awakened  the  social  consciousness  of  the  peasant,  who, 
by  his  ignorance,  his  apathy,  and  his  superstition,  is  the 
supreme  rampart  of  Tsardom.  It  is  revolutionary 
Socialism  that  has  sought  to  plant  the  political  claims  of 
the  people  upon  the  only  solid  basis :  the  will  of  the 
peasants.  And  it  is  in  consequence  of  its  indefatigable 
and  dangerous  activity  that  the  "  peasant  question,"  the 
primordial  question,  the  question  of  the  existence  of 
nine-tenths  of  the  nation,  of  one  hundred  and  ten 
million  individuals,  has  become  the  supreme  political 
problem. 

The  Peasants. 

We  have  seen  the  insupportable  economic  conditions 
which  the  Plehvian  Oligarchy  and  Witte's  regime  im- 
posed upon  the  peasants.  Witte  himself,  at  the  close 
of  his  career,  after  all  his  reforms  in  the  inverse  direc- 
tion, has  laboured  with  amazing  energy  to  enter  the 
natural  path,  to  ameliorate  the  economic  conditions  of 
peasant  life,  and  to  base  the  future  politics  of  the  Empire 
upon  the  material  and  moral  elevation  of  this  class. 
Since  1901  innumerable  inquiries  have  been  held  with  a 
view  to  these  reforms — reforms  that  were  stillborn,  as 
may  well  be  imagined,  seeing  that  their  execution  could 
only  have  tended  to  make  the  peasants  conscious  of  the 
situation,  and  to  upset  the  Bureaucratic  regime.  These 
Government  inquiries  have  proved  that  in  addition  to 
poverty,  two  other  non-political  causes  have  mainly  con- 
tributed to  the  downfall  of  the  peasants :  administrative 
organisation  and  ignorance. 

The  defects  of  the  peasant  administration  can  be 
summed  up  in  two  words  :  zemstvo  and  mir. 

The  zemstvos,  elective  organs  of  local  administration. 


268  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

correspond  in  principle  with  the  General  Councils  and 
Divisional  Councils  of  France.  Introduced  by  Alexander 
II.  after  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  they  were  doubtless 
destined  to  take  on  the  administrative  work  that  had 
been  performed  till  then  by  the  nobles :  elementary 
instruction,  affairs  of  local  interest,  sanitary  department, 
and  similar  objects,  in  view  of  which  they  voted  special 
communal  contributions.  Their  activity  was,  however, 
vitiated  from  the  outset  by  several  restrictions.  In  the 
first  place,  their  decisions  were  subject  to  the  veto  of 
the  Government.  Next,  Great  Russian  Nationalism  had 
excluded  the  major  portion  of  Europe  from  participation 
in  reform  :  thirty-four  departments  alone  profited,  while 
everywhere  else,  in  the  north,  west,  south-west,  and  east, 
it  was  still  the  officials  alone  who  were  concerned  with 
the  local  administration.  Lastly,  these  Assemblies, 
divisional  zemstvos  and  departmental  zemstvos,  elected 
generally  for  three  years,  included  three  classes 
of  members,  excluding  the  participation  of  all  indi- 
viduals who  are  not  landed  proprietors.  The  first  of 
these  classes,  that  of  the  large  proprietors,  the  most 
numerous,  is  represented  by  the  Nobles,  whose 
heads  of  families  are  members  by  right.  The 
second  included  the  delegates  of  the  bourgeois  pro- 
prietors in  the  towns.  The  third  consists  of  the 
delegates  of  the  peasant  communes,  who  are  elected 
indirectly  ;  the  communes,  in  effect,  elect  delegates  by 
universal  suffrage,  which  is  too  often  falsified  by  pres- 
sure, to  the  councils  of  the  "  enlarged  communes,"  or 
volosti,  which  represent  a  fixed  extent  of  occupied  terri- 
tory. It  is  these  councils  of  volosti  which  elect  the 
members  of  the  zemstvos.  These  organisations,  which 
have  long  been  swayed  exclusively  by  local  interests, 
have   always    been    the    irreconcilable   enemies   of    the 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      269 

Bureaucracy.  This  party  saw  an  obstacle  to  its  arbitrary 
executive  in  their  action,  the  more  so  as  the  elementary 
instruction  and  hygiene  which  the  zemstvos  are  charged 
to  administer  might  transform  the  peasants  into  self- 
conscious  citizens.  Accordingly,  when  the  Plehvian 
Oligarchy  reached  its  apogee,  it  transformed  the  laws  of 
Alexander  II.  so  as  to  reduce  the  zemstvos  to  simple 
registration  offices.  Under  pretext  of  democratic  de- 
centralisation it  controlled  their  deliberations  by  pre- 
fects instead  of  ministers,  and  its  communal  delegates, 
attached  to  the  police,  the  zemskie  natcJialniki,  took  the 
local  administration  in  hand  on  bureaucratic  principles, 
uniting  police  brutality  with  peculation.  They  sum- 
marily fixed  expenses  according  to  the  local  budgets  for 
the  benefit  of  those  who  tendered  the  largest  com- 
missions ;  they  directed  the  economic  "  amelioration," 
the  sanitary  arrangements,  and  instruction  in  such  a 
fashion  as  to  destroy  all  material  or  intellectual  develop- 
ment. They  dismissed  the  doctors,  who  were  appointed 
and  paid  by  the  zemstvos,  for  "  having,  on  pretext  of 
hygiene,  organised  schools  on  subversive  principles.' 
Schoolmasters,  who  "taught  history  and  other  dangerous 
subjects  to  the  children  "  were  dismissed,  and  in  nume- 
rous instances  replaced  by  popes  who  could  neither  read 
nor  write.  In  a  word  "local  administration"  became 
merely  a  regime  of  police  and  of  corruption.  Thus  the 
reforms  of  Alexander  II.  were  annulled;  the  people, 
that  portion  of  the  i)eople  which  cnjoj'ed  the  institution 
of  zemstvos,  saw  itself  anew  deprived  of  all  means  of 
raising  the  level  of  its  intellectual  and  moral  existence 
by  its  own  efforts.  The  struggle  between  the  Zemstvos 
and  the  Bureaucracy  assumed  a  more  and  more  serious 
aspect.  The  Assemblies,  which  had  remained  docile 
and  confined  themselves  to  economic  requirements,  were 


270  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

led  to  criticise  the  general  political  conditions  that  ham- 
pered their  activity.  Some  went  on  strike,  abandoning 
the  departments  to  the  profoundest  decay,  which  again 
favoured  the  germination  of  a  revolutionary  spirit ; 
others  protested  violently,  and  were  dissolved,  dis- 
persed by  the  police  in  a  series  of  minor  coups  d'etat. 
All  claimed  the  liberty  that  had  been  "  guaranteed " 
them.  All  ended  by  perceiving  that  the  sole  serious 
guarantee  would  be  the  substitution  of  a  constitutional 
regime  for  the  Bureaucracy. 

And  while  the  entire  population  was  thus  suffering 
from  the  arrest  of  all  material  amelioration,  the  peasants, 
more  particularly,  continued,  in  the  greater  part  of 
Russia,  to  crouch  under  the  yoke  of  the  mir,  that 
ancient  institution  of  landed  collectivism,  admirable  in 
theory,  but  which  has  conduced  more  than  aught  be- 
sides to  bring  the  mujik  to  apathy,  misery,  and  moral 
ruin.  The  problem  of  the  mir  is,  fundamentally,  the 
whole  of  the  peasant  problem  in  Great  Russia.  Its 
functions  and  curious  mechanism  merit  a  brief  descrip- 
tion. The  modern  7nir  is  by  no  means  the  community 
of  goods  with  which  we  are  familiar  among  savages.  It 
owes  its  origin  to  the  abolition  of  serfdom.  The  result 
of  this  latter  institution  had  been  to  group  the  peasants 
in  agglomerations,  in  distinct  communes.  It  was  to 
these  communities  that  the  proprietorship  of  the  lands 
that  had  formerly  been  held  by  the  nobles  was  handed 
over.  At  the  same  time,  collective  responsibility  was 
instituted.  Yet  this  collectivism  of  landed  property  and 
landed  responsibility  have  never  produced  the  good 
results  that  were  expected  from  them.  They  have  re- 
mained in  the  state  of  abstract  notions.  The  land  is, 
indeed,  distributed,  usually  for  three  years,  by  a  general 
assembly  of  the  heads  of  families  and  all  are  collectively 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      271 

responsible  for  the  payment  of  taxes,  as  also  for  the 
communal  enterprises.  But  whither  have  these  principles 
brought  the  people  ? 

The  interest  of  the  commune,  the  mir,  has  never  been 
the  mainspring  of  the  activity  of  its  members.  Even 
the  duties  legally  imposed  by  the  law,  relief  of  old 
people,  sick,  wounded,  &c.,  are  not  fulfilled  by  the  com- 
mune. As  a  matter  of  fact,  each  person  is  left  to  his 
fate ;  the  commune  in  practice  comes  to  no  one's  aid. 
It  leaves  the  unfortunates  and  incapables  to  perish. 
And  the  division  of  lands,  in  itself,  only  results  in 
putting  them  all  in  conditions  in  which  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  them  to  improve  their  position.  No  one 
can  tell  if  he  will  be  working  on  the  same  portion  of  the 
land  next  year,  so  that  he  has  no  interest  in  improving 
it ;  he  exploits  it,  uses  it,  depreciates  it.  And  the  same 
peasant  often  has  several  parcels  of  land  that  are  too 
minute  to  be  profitable,  and  may  besides  be  miles  apart 
from  each  other.  Disgusted  as  he  may  be  with  his 
fruitless  toil,  he  has  no  chance  of  earning  a  better  fate. 
He  is  attached  to  the  glebe,  the  property  of  the  com- 
mune. He  cannot  burst  the  bonds  that  attach  him  to 
it.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Law  he  always  remains,  So-and- 
so,  the  member  of  a  given  commune.  He  may  quit  it, 
emigrate,  turn  artisan,  vagabond,  or  criminal  for  a  certain 
period.  But  for  that  he  must  have  the  authorisation  of 
the  mir,  the  General  Assembly,  which  furnishes  him  with 
the  authorisation  of  the  police  authorities,  with  the  in- 
dispensable passport.  He  then  gives  the  policeman  a 
tip,  promises  to  send  the  inir  a  portion  of  his  earnings, 
and  goes  off  to  work  in  the  factories.  He  earns  2s.  6d. 
a  day  ;  his  mir  becomes  aware  of  this,  and  commands 
him  to  send  home  30s.  a  month  on  pain  of  withdrawal 
of  his  passport  !     He  obeys,  but  he  falls  into  a  state  of 


272  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

misery,  grows  sick  of  working  for  others,  and  returns  to 
the  commune.  But  he  has  by  now  unlearned  the  trade 
of  labourer  ;  agricultural  work  no  longer  gives  him  any 
satisfaction.  In  the  first  place,  there  are  too  many  hands. 
He  becomes  a  ne'er-do-well,  a  burden,  for,  as  is  stated 
in  a  confidential  report,  "  the  villages  are  encumbered 
with  young  people  who,  finding  no  opportunity  of  work- 
ing, or  having  become  inept  for  agricultural  labour, 
are  absolutely  condemned  to  idleness,  and  swell  the 
agricultural  proletariat."  Or  perhaps  the  emigrant  is 
stiff-necked  and  refuses  to  pay.  His  commune  withdraws 
his  passport.  The  police  send  him  back  to  his  own 
country,  and  the  result  is  the  same.  Or  again,  the 
peasant  remains.  Even  in  districts  where  there  are  not  too 
many  hands,  he  gives  himself  up  to  idleness,  indifference, 
and  routine,  because  under  the  fiscal  conditions  stated 
above  his  work  does  not  better  him  in  any  way.  He 
passes  eight  months  out  of  twelve  lying  on  his  stove,  so 
as  to  spend  nothing.  The  work  is  nowhere  done  as  it 
should  be.  Everyone  plots  the  ruin  of  his  neighbour  in 
order  to  get  possession  of  his  parcel  of  land.  The  least 
miserable  become  koidaki,  agricultural  usurers,  and  drain 
the  others  till  they  quit  their  lands  for  the  benefit  of 
these  vampires,  this  land  for  which  they  have  repaid  both 
capital  and  interest  during  forty  years. 

Collective  responsibility  has  been  even  more  disas- 
trous. In  the  hands  of  the  oligarchy  of  the  most 
favoured,  it  has  become  a  terrii)le  weapon  against  the 
poor.  Each  knows  that  if  his  neighbour  does  not  pay 
his  part  of  the  tax  he  will  have  to  pay  it  for  him.  And 
therefore  the  inir  is  always  inexorable.  While  the  law 
specifies  precisely  what  the  private  creditor  can  seize 
from  the  peasant,  and  what  cannot  be  touched,  "  no 
law,"    says    a    confidential    report,    "  intervenes    in    his 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      273 

favour  when  it  is  the  mir  who  performs  the  office  of 
baiHff."  To  avoid  paying  for  the  paupers,  the  victims  of 
accidents,  improvidence,  or  a  bad  harvest  (which  sums 
up  all  the  rest),  the  mir  will  seize  goods,  beasts,  and 
crops,  will  even  confiscate  the  land  which  it  has  parcelled 
out,  and  put  it  up  to  auction  for  the  rent !  The  whole 
thing  is  sold  for  ridiculous  prices,  and  the  shareholder 
in  rural  collectivism  is  delivered  over  to  starvation  ! 
The  number  of  landless  peasants  is  developing  in  a 
frightful  degree,  and  the  proletarisation  of  the  country- 
districts  is  growing,  thanks  to  the  very  institution  that 
was  to  check  it. 

The  same  disastrous  result  is  seen  for  the  "  ameliora- 
tion" of  the  communal  services.  In  order  not  to  pay, 
neither  roads  nor  bridges  are  constructed,  so  that  it 
is  sometimes  impossible  to  lead  the  harvests.  In  spring 
and  autumn,  the  village  streets  are  generally  a  swamp  in 
which  it  is  literally  possible  to  drown  oneself,  while  in 
summer  the  dust  covers  beasts  and  vehicles.  The  com- 
munal reservoirs  serve  as  drinking  troughs  and  are 
always  empty  if  a  fire  breaks  out.  The  villages  too, 
burn  down  completely  on  the  smallest  provocation. 

What  can  be  said  for  the  houses,  and  for  their  inhabi- 
tants who  are  thus  periodically  deprived  of  everything, 
since  there  is  no  insurance  ?  Their  huts,  izba^  contain  a 
single  room  of  which  one  quarter  is  occupied  by  the 
stove  ;  along  the  wall  there  is  a  sleeping-bench,  and  that 
is  all.  They  have  a  medium  capacity  of  thirty-five 
cubic  metres,  with  an  average  of  six  to  eight  inhabitants. 
Five  cubic  metres  per  person,  while  hygiene  entails  a 
minimum  of  twenty !  Several  kindred  families  are 
generally  crammed  into  these  hovels  (without  counting 
the  fowls  and  lambs  in  winter),  in  unclean  promiscuity 
and  appalling  dirt,  with  a  stifling  atmosphere,  and  no 

T 


274  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

possibility  of  ventilation !  Flatted  earth  for  floor,  rough 
table  for  all  domestic  business  and  to  eat  off,  a  few  nails 
for  the  onions  and  furs,  the  stinking  sheep-skins,  to 
hang  from.  The  people  sleep  everywhere,  mostly  on 
the  ground,  the  bench  and  the  top  of  the  stove  being 
reserved  for  the  old  people.  Men,  women,  children, 
young  girls,  young  people,  sons-in-law,  daughters-in-law, 
uncles,  aunts,  the  whole  boiling  sleep  there  pell-mell  ; 
custom  happily  arranges  that  any  child  that  is  born  is 
put  down  to  his  legal  father.  Rye  bread  is  eaten  —the 
heavier  the  better,  because  "  you  can  feel  it  in  your 
belly " — buckwheat,  potatoes,  cabbages,  or  bread  made 
of  birch  bark,  or  nothing  at  all.  Meat  is  not  in  favour  ; 
in  the  first  place  they  do  not  get  any,  in  the  second,  "  you 
can't  feel  it  in  your  belly."  Infantile  mortality  exceeds 
fifty  per  cent.  Water,  kvass,  or  tea  are  drunk  ;  the  last, 
which  is  not  common,  is  considered  a  sign  of  wealth. 
There  is  no  regular  consumption  of  brandy,  but  at  the 
religious  festivals  it  is  consumed  in  such  quantities  as 
invariably  upsets  the  balance  of  the  budget. 

Lastly,  what  of  the  cultivation  of  the  lands?  All 
that  are  far  from  the  village  are  generally  abandoned  by 
their  owners.  The  immense  unappropriated  communal 
lands  are  left  virgin.  The  forests  are  devastated  and 
disappear.  New  and  necessary  buildings  are  never 
erected  at  any  distance  from  the  village  ;  no  one  wants 
them.  The  houses  crowd  each  other  out ;  there  is  little 
harvesting,  and  square  leagues  are  left  untilled  a  little 
way  from  the  village. 

This  is  the  social  mir.  Now  let  us  turn  to  the  moral 
inir.  This  is  a  different  matter,  disastrous  to  Tsardom, 
comforting  from  the  revolutionary  point  of  view.  To 
learn  its  characteristics,  we  could  not  do  better  than  cite 
the   confidential  bureaucratic   report   above-mentioned. 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      275 

taking,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  opposite  point  of  view 
in  appreciating  the  facts. 

The  moral  influence  exercised  by  the  mir  upon  the 
population  has  been  disastrous, 

"  The  peasant  had  been  accustomed  from  all  time  to 
be  directed.  At  the  moment  in  which  a  new  situation 
was  created  for  him  by  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  he  was 
uneducated  politically  and  socially.  If  the  will  of  his 
masters  had  till  then  been  his  only  rudder,  in  future 
he  was  to  count  upon  himself  alone,  and  this  not  only 
for  the  guidance  of  his  own  destinies,  but  for  the 
direction,  as  a  member  of  the  mir,  of  the  life  of  the 
entire  community.  The  member  of  the  Commune  who 
was  nothing  yesterday,  neither  considered  nor  consulted 
by  anyone,  became  to-day,  in  virtue  of  the  new  order,  a 
personality,  a  real  authority,  intervening  in  his  character 
of  communal  proprietor  in  the  deliberations  of  the  mir. 
Since  routine  prevents  the  senior  members  of  the 
community  from  accustoming  themselves  to  this  new 
situation,  they  gradually  desert  the  communal  councils, 
where  the  young  people  who  are  more  prone  to  modern 
notions  eventually  reign  alone.  Owing  to  this  fact,  the 
authority  of  age  which  has  hitherto  been  one  of  the 
bases  of  the  life  of  the  peasant,  is  declining  more  and 
more,  and  dropping  to  zero.  The  old  man  no  longer 
counts  in  the  mir,  nor  in  the  family,  which  is  losing  all 
its  patriarchal  character.  It  is  no  longer  the  father  who 
commands  the  son,  it  is  the  son  who  imposes  his  will 
on  the  father.  And  if  it  happens  that  the  latter  revolts, 
and  tries  to  put  his  disobedient  son  back  into  his  right 
place,  the  latter  has  recourse  to  the  mir,  which,  to  "  avoid 
scandal,"  can  find  nothing  better  than  division.  And  it 
follows  of  course  invariably,  that  in  these  divisions  it  is 
the  father  who  is  duped. 

T  2 


276  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

"  The  church  is  only  frequented  now  by  old  people  : 
the  young  ones  are  occupied,  they  are  attending  to  their 
business  !  The  clergy  is  neither  upheld  nor  esteemed.  .  . 
Filial  affection,  the  respect  due  to  age,  faith,  all  have 
thus  disappeared  in  the  dissolving  action  of  the 
commune.  But  the  harm  would  not  be  irremediable  if 
that  were  all  ;  unfortunately  there  is  yet  more,  and  a  far 
graver  matter.  What  is  much  worse  is  the  belief  in  the 
omnipotence  of  the  mir  which  has  been  engendered  in 
the  peasant.  For  him,  in  fact,  there  is  nothing  beyond 
the  mir,  no  one  can  do  anything  against  it.  .  .  .  Now 
this  sentiment  is  an  incomparable  nursery  garden  for 
socialist  ideas.  We  are  convinced  that  if  ever  Russia 
should  suffer  one  of  those  catastrophes  let  loose  by  the 
uprising  of  the  masses  of  the  people,  the  movement, 
contrary  to  what  has  occurred  in  Western  Europe, 
would  here  start  from  the  country.  .  .  .  Just  as  the 
Commune  has  cherished  the  Proletariat  in  its  bosom,  so 
it  will  give  birth  to  this  other  noxious  product 
Socialism."  .  .  . 

The  picture  thus  furnished  by  the  Bureaucracy  itself  of 
the  development  of  the  peasant  commune  puts  the  last 
touches  to  our  map  of  the  social  crisis.  The  double  con- 
fession that  the  Russian  peasant  is  the  victim  of  the  pro- 
gressive proletarisation,  as  well  as  the  ever  more  fervent 
disciple  of  modern  conceptions,  throws  all  the  light  that 
can  be  desired  upon  the  pre-revolutionary  attitude  of 
nine-tenths  of  the  population  of  the  Empire.  The  crisis 
emphatically  is  not  merely  social  but  still  more  political. 
For  the  rest  it  had  already  become  political,  by  a  natural 
evolution,  before  the  revolutionary  Intellectuals  had 
dared  to  carry  their  propaganda  to  the  peasants.  It  is 
certain  that  political  forms  in  general  do  not  interest 
these  totally  ignorant  masses  :  but  what  they  detest  is  at 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      277 

any  rate  the  contemporaneous,  Tsarist,  bureaucratic  form 
in  politics.  The  peasants  have  become  conscious,  if  we 
may  venture  to  put  it  so,  of  what  the}  no  longer  want  ; 
but  they  have  not  yet  become  aware  of  what  they  do  want. 
And  if  in  the  majority  of  cases,  orthodoxy  and  custom, 
conjoined  with  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  instruction, 
prevents  them  from  conceiving  of  an  Empire  without 
a  Tsar  ;  they  have  on  the  other  hand  a  clear  conception 
of  the  iniquity  of  great  landed  property,  of  the  immorality 
of  the  advantages  accruing  to  the  bureaucrats  who  are 
attached  to  the  defence  of  the  Government — they  can 
finally  conceive  the  Constitution,  which  is  the  essential 
matter  : — an  immense  inir,  a  "  district  delegation " 
including  the  entire  country  ; — in  brief.  National 
Autonomy. 

if 
The  Intellectual  Crisis. 

And  yet,  intellectually  speaking,  they  are  not  by  any 
means  ready  to  exercise  this  autonomy. 

Such  is  the  intellectual  condition  of  the  Tsar's  subjects 
that  even  if  "  patriarchal  autocracy,"  as  represented  by 
the  bureaucratic  Oligarchy,  were  able  to  introduce  re- 
forms which  could  sweep  away  the  cconc^mic,  political, 
and  judicial  crises  without  destroying  itself;  even  if 
every  man  obtained  absolute  liberty  of  movement,  the 
possibility  of  working  freely  for  himself,  and  further,  the 
judicial  weapons  which  would  render  him  capable  of 
defending  himself  by  personal  initiative  against  the 
bureaucratic  arbitrament,  nothing  would  thereby  be 
altered.  For  nine-tenths  of  the  nation,  more  than  120 
millions  of  Russian  subjects,  would  be  totally  prevented 
from  profiting  by  such  advantages,  ignorant,  unlettered, 
unconscious  of  their  indignity  as  they  are — unconscious 


278  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

of  their  new  rights  and  privileges  as  they  will  long  remain. 
On  close  inspection  that  is  the  point  at  which  all  bureau- 
cratic reform  must  collapse ;  and  that  consequently  is 
the  point  from  which  the  Revolution  springs. 

This  seeming  contradiction  is  so  in  appearance  only. 
The  people  are  too  ignorant  to  substitute,  and  above  all 
to  administer,  a  more  modern  regime  in  place  of  the 
existing  system  ?  But  if  bureaucratic  reform  is  impossi- 
ble without  at  the  same  time  destroying  the  Bureaucracy, 
Russia  must  be  hastening  towards  anarchy,  and  absolute 
barbarism !  The  argument  is  facile  and  imposing  ;  it 
is  the  frequent  excuse  for  Tsarism  in  the  eyes  of  the 
civilised  world,  but  it  is  fallacious.  It  overlooks  the 
existence  of  a  numerous  intellectual  elite,  who  are  pre- 
vented, by  lack  of  numbers  alone,  from  possessing  them- 
selves of  power.  This  want  will  be  supplied  by  the  still 
illiterate  masses.  They  are  not  too  ignorant  to  realise 
that  an  upheaval  alone  can  deliver  them  from  their 
misery,  while  their  very  intellectual  incapacity  for  con- 
fronting the  problems  that  will  present  themselves 
collectively  after  this  upheaval  will  facilitate  the  Intel- 
lectual Oligarchy. 

After  the  Revolution,  in  fact,  it  is  this  party  only  who 
will  be  capable  of  governing.  And  of  this  the  Bureau- 
cracy is  so  well  aware  that,  in  order  to  determine  the 
chances  there  would  be  of  sowing  dissension  between 
the  illiterates  and  the  intellectuals,  it  has  taken  pains, 
since  1899,  to  search  out,  with  the  greatest  possible 
minutics,  the  state  of  the  mind,  or  rather  the  want  of 
mind,  of  the  crowds.  The  results  of  the  secret  inquiry, 
which  "convinced  the  Government  of  the  inutility  of 
giving  more  extensive  rights  to  the  people  as  against 
the  Authorities,"  are  literally  overwhelming.  They 
relate  to  42  Departments — 33  in   European  Russia,  5 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING     279 

in  Poland,  2  in  the  Caucasus,  and  2  in  Siberia.  The 
maximum  percentage  of  persons  capable  of  signing 
their  names  is  at  St.  Petersburg,  i.e.^  a  little  more  than 
half,  55  per  cent.  ;  the  minimum  at  Kars  (Armenia), 
II  per  cent.  In  six  Governments  the  number  of  the 
illiterate  amounts  to  two-thirds,  in  fifteen  others  to 
three-quarters,  in  five  others  again  to  four-fifths,  and  in 
the  fourteen  remaining  to  about  nine-tenths  of  the 
population  ! 

The  women  are  far  below  this  average.  Only  two- 
fifths  of  the  feminine  population  of  St.  Petersburg  can 
read  even  a  little ;  the  average  for  the  provincial  towns 
is  about  a  sixteenth  (Viatka,  7*5  per  cent.  ;  Smolensk, 
7*1  ;  Simbirsk,  7  ;  Penza,  6"3),  and  in  the  country- 
districts  one  woman  in  twenty-five  is  able,  as  a  rule,  to 
read  her  name  ! 

The  figures  of  the  illiterate  taken  by  social  class  are 
even  more  astounding  ;  they  refer  solely  to  men.  The 
most  lettered  caste — as  in  Ancient  India — is  the  clergy  ; 
out  of  100  priests  there  are  only  twenty-eight  who  can 
neither  read  nor  write.  The  aristocracy  is  a  little  less 
learned  :  it  plumes  itself  on  thirty  illiterates  to  each 
100  gentlemen.  The  "  middle  class,"  comprising  in 
this  census  all  who  do  not  belong  either  to  the  preceding 
classes,  or  to  the  peasant  caste,  i.e.,  all  the  non-ennobled 
officials  (the  rank  of  "  Councillor  of  State  "  is  equivalent 
in  the  ladder  of  civil  degrees  formed  after  the  military 
grades  to  that  of  General  of  Brigade,  and  confers 
nobility) ;  then  the  "  honorary  burgesses,"  a  sort  of 
intermediate  caste  between  the  nobles  and  the  simple 
bourgeoisie,  and  enjoying  certain  privileges  ;  then  the 
burghers  of  the  towns,  merchants,  industrials,  artisans, 
and  industrial  labourers  not  included  in  the  list  of  the 
Great  Russian    mirs — this   hybrid  class  reckons   sixty 


2«0 


RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 


illiterates  to  lOO  persons.  In  regard  finally  to  the 
peasants,  they  break  the  record  of  all  the  civilised 
peoples  of  Europe,  America,  and  Asia,  with  eighty-nine 
individuals  indicted  with  analphabetism  out  of  lOO. 

The  picture  is,  if  possible,  even  more  appalling  if  we 
consider  the  number  of  persons  of  the  two  sexes  who 
have  received  a  "  higher  "  education — taking  the  word  in 
the  Russian  sense — that  is,  who  have  learned  some  notion 
of  facts  in  addition  to  catechism  and  writing  (calculation 
is  performed  by  all  classes  of  the  population  with  the  aid 
of  an  elementary  machine).  They  have  been  counted  in 
thirty-six  Departments,  the  most  advanced  of  the  Empire. 
There,  to  a  population  of  58,819,125  souls,  the  number 
of"  scholars  "  amounts  to  690,361,  that  is,  I'l  per  cent. ! 
Imagine  France  with  just  400,000  persons  aware  of  the 
existence  of  Germany,  and  having  heard  the  name  of 
Napoleon,  and  you  will  have  the  intellectual  standard  of 
Russia  !  The  Bureaucracy,  well  aware  of  the  gravity  of 
this  situation  for  the  life  of  the  State,  is  none  the  less 
well  content  with  it.  This  state  of  things  is  in  fact  its 
work,  and  it  finds  amusement,  besides,  in  avowing  its 
profound  contempt  for  the  illiterates.  It  has  left  them 
in  a  state  bordering  on  that  of  the  beasts,  in  order  to 
treat  them  as  such  with  impunity  ;  and  the  most 
monstrous  actions,  such,  for  example,  as  the  numerous 
cases  in  which  whole  villages  have  been  seized  by  the 
Tax-Collector  for  non-payment  of  taxes,  simply  because 
there  was  no  one  to  read  the  roll  of  contributions,  are 
publicly  discussed  as  evidence  of  the  excellence  of  the 
existing  regime.  .  .  no  other  being  possible  for  "  such 
rabble."  What  really  is  astonishing  is  that  a  minority 
of  Intellectuals  has  been  able  to  constitute  itself,  despite 
the  obstacles  systematically  raised  to  the  development  of 
instruction  :    primary   education    is   illusory,   secondary 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      281 

instruction  is  monopolised  for  the  benefit  of  the  Adminis- 
tration, and  is  devised  solely  in  order  to  turn  out  perfect 
bureaucrats  according  to  the  principles  of  Plehve  and 
Serge. 

Primary  instruction  is  lacking  in  any  central  organisa- 
tion ;  it  makes  not  for  instruction,  but  for  subjection. 
The  schools  are  only  partly  kept  up  by  the  Ministry  of 
*'  Enlightenment  of  the  People "  {Narodnoie  Prosvecht- 
chenie)  and  of  Public  Instruction.  A  vast  number  of 
them  are  dependent  on  the  Most  Holy  Synod,  the 
directive  organ  of  the  Orthodox  Church  ;  others  belong 
to  the  Ministry  of  Public  Works,  of  War,  of  the  Navy, 
of  the  Court,  and,  above  all,  of  Finance.  Finally,  the 
best  schools  are  departmental,  founded  and  kept  up  by 
the  zemstvos,  but  distorted  and  depreciated  by  bureau- 
cratic interference  in  local  affairs,  in  despite  of  the  laws 
of  Alexander  II.  Russia  (close  of  1901)  has  84,544 
primary  schools  ;  the  teaching  staff  consists  of  172,494 
teachers  ;  the  number  of  pupils  of  both  sexes  amounts 
to  4,580,827.  And  the  Empire  has  130,000,000  inhabit- 
ants !  Public  Instruction  only  directs  40,000  of  these 
schools,  the  Holy  Synod,  42,000.  But  it  is  important  to 
note  the  distrust  felt  by  the  people  against  these  last, 
which  have  only  1,600,000  pupils,  while  those  of  the 
State  contain  2,800,000.  On  an  average,  each  minis- 
terial school  reckons  71  pupils,  the  parish  school,  38 
only.  The  schools  deriving  from  other  sources  come 
between  the  two  in  this  respect  ;  the  Church  teaching 
has  least  of  all. 

The  number  of  scholars  is  increasing  by  375,000  per 
annum  ;  the  figure  of  the  population  is  increasing  by 
twenty  times  more  !  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  primary 
schools  have  only  a  single  class  !  The  following  official 
statistics   are   even    more   suggestive.     Estimating   the 


282  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

territory  of  the  Empire  at  18,764,785  square  versts 
(a  verst  equals  1,050  metres)  and  its  population  at 
133,000,000  souls,  the  average  works  out  at  one  school  to 
1,600  inhabitants  and  to  each  225  square  kilometres.  But 
if  we  take  only  the  schools  with  two  or  three  classes, 
we  find  one  to  5,100  square  kilometres,  i.e.,  to  36,000 
inhabitants.  The  departments  in  which  the  schools  are 
most  numerous  are  Moscow  and  Toula  (one  to  16  square 
kilometres),  Podolia  (one  to  17),  Varsovia  and  Kieff 
(one  to  20).  That  of  Petersburg  has  one  to  24  square 
kilometres.  The  absolute  impossibility  of  sending  more 
than  a  small  minority  of  the  children  to  school,  even  in 
the  most  favoured  countries,  is  obvious.  And  what  shall 
be  said  of  the  less  favoured  districts  ?  In  that  of 
Tourgaisk,  there  is  one  school  per  2,700  square  kilo- 
metres ;  Samarcand,  one  to  2,900 ;  Amour,  one  to 
3,600  ;  Ferghana,  one  to  6,500  ;  Yenissei,  one  per  7,800  ; 
Transcaspia,  one  per  12,000;  Yakoutsk,  one  per  50,000 
square  kilometres.  As  regards  the  sex  of  the  pupils, 
the  girls  are  at  a  frightful  disadvantage  ;  1,200,000  only 
go  to  school  against  3,300,000  boys.  As  to  the  social 
position  of  the  pupils,  84  per  cent,  are  the  children  of 
peasants,  the  rest  belong  to  the  urban  population.  The 
pupils  at  the  most  advanced  schools  (three  classes)  are, 
out  of  over  20,000,000  of  children,  just  173,538. 

This  revolting  state  of  affairs  is  attributable  solely  to 
the  costly  whims  of  Tsardom,  conjoined  with  a  secret 
desire  to  limit  popular  education.  This  is  proved  by 
the  expenditure  upon  primary  instruction.  Per  year 
and  per  inhabitant  the  cost  of  primary  instruction 
amounts  to  33*.  at  Moscow  and  2s.  8d.  at  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  ministerial  report  whence  these  figures  are 
extracted  states  triumphantly  that  money  is  not 
squandered   everywhere   in  this  reckless  fashion.     The 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      283 

"  least  burdened  "  department  of  European  Russia  is 
Kovno  in  Lithuania,  where  only  fourpence  is  expended 
per  year  per  inhabitant.  In  Asia  the  economy  is  much 
greater ;  only  twopence  is  expended  at  Semiretchensk, 
one  penny  at  Samarcand,  one  halfpenny  per  year  per 
head  in  the  Ferghana.  Further,  in  31  departments, 
no  school  has  any  sort  of  library,  even  if  only  of  three 
volumes  !  And  the  poverty  of  the  peasants  is  not  con- 
ducive to  providing  libraries. 

Since,  therefore,  it  is  evident  that  the  people  cannot 
develop  intellectually,  it  will  readily  be  understood 
that  the  higher  instruction  provided  against  payment 
to  the  children  of  the  wealthy  classes  can  only  abut  in 
the  mental  subjection  of  slaves  ;  it  is  strangled  by  the 
monopoly  of  the  State.  The  history  of  this  monopoly 
is  the  account  of  a  tragic  fight  between  intellectuality 
and  State  policy.  Monopoly  has  become  the  strongest 
weapon  of  the  existing  regime.  Instruction  is  organised 
in  the  intellectual  department  as  the  army  is  in  the 
department  of  external  life.  Or,  rather,  education  has 
spontaneously  organised  itself  on  the  principle  of 
"  intellectual  obedience  "  without  any  need  of  assistance 
from  the  State.  Whatever,  near  or  far,  relates  to  instruc- 
tion exists  only  by  the  State ;  it  is  the  State  that 
appoints  professors,  gives  diplomas  to  the  students,  and 
enacts  the  wearing  of  uniforms  for  both  ;  it  is  the  State 
that  favours  those  who  serve  it  best  in  the  world  of 
letters,  and  who  contribute  to  the  perpetuation  of  the 
existing  regime.  Again,  even  if  the  State  were 
absolutely  impartial,  which  is  a  practical  impossibility, 
the  lower  would  unconsciously  model  itself  upon  the 
higher  ;  the  pupil  would  take  as  his  ideal  the  mental 
attitude  of  those  "  have  arrived  "  in  the  State,  and  the 
latter,  without  even  resorting  to  a  suicidal  patronage  of 


284  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

tendencies  hostile  to  itself  in  education,  has  the  glory  of 
seeing  new  generations  adapting  themselves  more  and 
more  to  the  intellect  that  appears  to  guide  them. 

This  is  the  ideal  education,  monopolised  by  the  State, 
which  reigned  in  Russia  under  Nicholas  I.  It  should 
be  noted  that  this  monopoly  can,  in  given  cases,  connote 
the  suppression  or  restriction  of  education  so  soon  as  it 
comes  within  the  interest  of  the  State  to  limit  the 
intellectual  development  of  the  crowd. 

What  has  happened  is  even  worse,  if  possible.  There 
has  been  a  struggle  to  combat  the  Western  knowledge 
that  was  trickling  in  ;  everything  has  been  "  Russified  "  ; 
those  who  resisted  "  Tsarian  truth "  have  been  per- 
secuted as  very  criminals.  An  inquisition,  a  church,  an 
intellectual  dogma  reigned,  the  denial  of  which  involved 
the  worst  penalties.  And  still  the  stronger  intellects 
wrestled  on. 

It  is  here  that  the  intellectual  tragedy  that  will  endure 
to  the  end  of  Tsardom  commences.  Men  were  found 
who,  after  escaping  from  the  mental  prison  house  of 
State  Education,  devoted  themselves  to  the  propaganda 
of  ideas  abhorrent  to  monopoly.  Accordingly,  the 
monopoly  of  public  schools  had  to  be  extended  to 
private  lessons  !  The  generation  of  the  first  revoltes 
grew  up,  created  a  younger  generation,  and  proposed  to 
form  its  intelligence  at  home,  on  the  model  of  the  father 
and  mother,  rather  than  on  that  of  the  abstract  being 
whom  the  State  instructed,  and  alluded  to  as  the 
"  perfect  citizen "  or  "  perfect  subject,"  because  its 
perfection  consists  precisely  in  having  no  opinion,  no 
voluntary  movement  other  than  what  coincides 
absolutely  with  the  regime  that  is  in  power.  Those, 
however,  who  attempted  to  institute  this  system  of 
family   education    found    themselves   torn    from    their 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      285 

children,  and  thrown  into  prison  for  rebellion.  And 
if  matters  were  not  always  pushed  so  far  the  right  was 
reserved  of  watching,  spying,  denouncing  these  guilty 
parents,  representing  them  to  their  children  as  criminals, 
ripping  up  all  family  bonds,  and  converting  the  child 
into  a  hesitating,  neuter  being,  who  will  no  longer  be 
dangerous,  because  he  is  no  longer  any  good. 

Here  is  a  characteristic  outcome  of  this  domestic 
espionage :  A  father  was  giving  his  son  lessons  in 
Greek,  and  making  him  read  the  Republic  of  Plato. 
The  porter,  coming  in  by  chance,  heard  the  word 
"politikc^."  Convinced  in  his  ignorance  that  politics 
were  being  discussed,  and  anarchical  writings  studied, 
he  denounced  his  master.  The  Inspector  of  Education 
came  to  sift  out  this  "  clandestine  school,"  and  made  the 
child  appear  before  the  Authorities,  who.  after  extorting 
the  confession  that  he  had  read  the  book  in  question, 
separated  him  from  his  father,  and  sent  him  to  a  State 
School,  for  which  his  father  had  to  pay,  with  the  further 
fine  of  two  thousand  roubles  for  "  illegal  exercise  of 
scholastic  functions." 

The  University  revolts,  which  have  never  ceased,  but 
exhibit  an  ever-growing  span  in  proportion  with  the 
growth  of  the  oppression,  are  only  the  external  manifes- 
tation of  this  mental  fight.  The  majority  of  young 
minds,  even  the  best  endowed,  succumb  fatally,  if  only 
frcvm  isolation.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  do  resist 
are  all  the  stronger :  they  arc  real  intellectual  heroes, 
even  if  from  the  Western  {)oint  of  view  they  do  not  shine 
as  stars  of  first  magnitude  in  the  heaven  of  knowledge. 
Their  chief  claim  to  glory  is  the  non-destruction  of  their 
individual  mentality.  This  intellectual  heroism  readily 
entails  political  heroism.  There  is  first  the  special 
temperament  that  produces  the  apostle,  then  the  ener- 


286  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

getic  enthusiasm  that  coolly  calculates  the  effect  to  be 
obtained,  but  sacrifices  itself  freely  if  this  effect  will  be 
appreciable.  It  is  these  criminals  liberated  from  the 
intellectual  dock  who  have  organised  terrorism,  and  have 
spontaneously  arrived  at  orientating  the  general  blind 
revolt  into  the  path  of  conscious  reclamatory  action. 

The  Bureaucracy  has  rendered  their  task  a  hard  one. 
Not  satisfied  with  letting  the  consciousness  of  the  people 
sleep,  it  has  drugged  it  with  the  most  subtle  and  power- 
ful narcotics.  The  most  stupid  religious  superstitions 
have  possessed  the  brains  of  the  crowd  for  long  genera- 
tions ;  the  most  perverted  and  intentional  falsehoods 
have  been  proposed  as  truths  from  Heaven,  in  the  sole 
aim  of  preventing  it  from  listening  to  those  who  were 
bringing  knowledge  and  the  means  of  happiness.  A  clever 
master-stroke !  For  in  last  resort  the  Bureaucracy 
allied  to  the  Theocracy  which  is  none  other,  according 
to  orthodox  dogma,  than  Tsardom,  has  been  able  to 
base  its  defensive  policy  against  the  popular  assault, 
upon  the  ignorance  of  the  very  crowds  who  are  seeking 
their  enfranchisement.  A  dangerous  game,  but  truly  a 
trump  card  !  The  terrorised  Tsar  let  be  ;  he  permitted 
his  person  to  be  associated  with  the  Bureaucracy,  the 
dogma  of  his  Divinity  to  be  flourished  to  crush  the 
Revolution,  to  arouse  the  unlettered  peasants  against  the 
prospect  of  their  own  betterment !  If  this  dogma  proved 
devoid  of  power,  the  Bureaucracy — and  with  it  the  Tsar 
himself — would  fall,  and  the  last  pillar  of  their  power, 
peasant  superstition,  would  crumble  with  it.  The  test 
has  been  tried.  In  December,  1904,  the  Synod,  by 
order  of  Pobiedonostseff  and  at  the  instigation  of  the 
Tsar,  despatched  an  ultra-confidential  circular  to  all  the 
Bishops,  which  put  the  question  definitely.  The  text 
is  as  follows  : 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      287 

"  The  Evil  One  is  once  again  attacking  the  Holy 
Orthodox  Church.  An  impious  agitation  has  been 
stirred  up  against  our  Gracious  Sovereign.  Under  the 
inspiration  of  the  Evil  One,  all  the  powers  of  darkness 
have  united  to  destroy  the  True  Faith.  They  have 
dared  approach  the  Sacred  Person  of  the  Head  of  the 
Church,  our  Sovereign  Master.  They  openly  desire 
Him  to  break  the  Most  Holy  Oath  which  He  pro- 
nounced at  His  Accession  to  the  Throne,  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  the  Assumption,  as  the  Anointed  of  the  Lord, 
and  by  which  He  vowed  to  defend  the  True  Faith,  and 
the  principles  by  which  His  Ancestors  have  governed 
Holy  Russia,  from  all  attacks.  The  power  of  the  Evil 
One  is  great,  but  the  True  Faith  can  crush  it,  and  in 
these  troubled  times  all  true  believers  should  join  to- 
gether to  avert  disaster  from  our  Religion  and  our  Empire. 
We  therefore  command  all  our  Bishops  to  transmit  the 
following  order  to  every  priest  in  their  respective  dioceses. 
Let  them  convene  their  flock  in  Church,  and  cause  them 
to  pray  repeatedly  to  the  Most-High,  and  to  the  Most- 
Holy-Mother-of-God,  in  order  that  they  may  confer  on 
our  Sovereign  Master  the  strength  of  mind  and  firmness 
of  spirit  necessary  to  enable  Him  to  resist  the  influence 
of  the  Evil  One,  to  avoid  perjury,  and  to  continue  to 
reign  in  accordance  with  the  True  Faith,  and  conform- 
ably to  the  will  of  His  Ancestors." 

This  appeal  in  extremis  had  no  consequence  other 
than  the  derision  of  the  peasants.  They  abstained  from 
appearing  at  the  prayer-meetings.  Nay,  more,  they  felt 
that  tragic  and  grotesque  appeal  to  be  a  confession  of 
the  wrong  with  which  the  Tsar  had  loaded  his  conscience, 
as  also  of  the  power  he  recognised  them  to  possess. 
The  peasant  is  above  all  profoundly  superstitious, 
religious,  fanatical,  yet  more  a  mystic.     But  this  mysti- 


288  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

cism,  which  made  him  see  the  Tsar  more  close  to  God 
than  he  was  himself,  did  not  admit  the  conception  of  a 
Tsar  further  from  God  than  himself.  If  the  Tsar  feels 
that  the  mujik  has  to  intervene  on  his  behalf,  it  means 
that  God  has  abandoned  him,  that  he  is  not  on  the 
right  path.  This  reasoning  repeated  a  million  times, 
will  consummate  the  fall  of  Tsardom.  This  ignorance 
and  religious  superstition,  by  a  just  return  of  things, 
have  sapped  the  last  pillar  of  the  Tsardom  they  were 
intended  to  prop  up.  God  has  condemned  the  regime. 
Henceforward  the  peasant  will  listen,  not  to  the  Tsar,  but 
to  his  own  common-sense  ;  he  claims  the  proprietorship 
of  all  the  land  ;  he  rises  in  rebellion  ;  he  burns  ;  he  loots  ; 
he  refuses  to  let  himself  be  slain  for  the  six  millions 
engulfed  at  Yonghampo  ;  he  organises  military  strikes, 
political  strikes,  social  strikes.  And  if  he  does  not  make 
the  Revolution  of  which  perhaps  he  still  ignores  the 
meaning,  he  lets  it  come  about. 

With  this,  the  picture  of  the  general  conditions 
presiding  at  the  inauguration  of  the  Russian  Revolution 
is  complete :  the  Administration  is  breaking  up — the 
whole  people  are  in  revolt. 

The  Revolution. 

On  the  day  when  the  Revolutionary  Era  in  Russia 
opened  with  the  murder  of  Plehve,  the  supreme  incarna- 
tion of  the  Tsarian  regime,  the  world  assisted  at  the 
sudden  materialisation  of  this  picture  in  an  impressionist 
epitome.  Everything  subsequent  to  this  event  has  only 
been  the  detailed  repetition,  on  a  smaller  scale,  of  this 
act,  which  was  too  absolute  to  be  understood  in  its 
profound  significance  by  the  entire  nation.  Each  indi- 
vidual, however,  repeated  it  according  to  his  strength  and 


THE  NATIONAL  AWAKENING      289 

to  the  place  he  filled.  The  fatal  termination  of  the  reign 
of  blood  and  falsehood,  the  extra-national  war,  the  war 
of  looters,  the  war  of  peculators,  the  war  of  incapables, 
the  war  of  fools,  convinced  the  most  vacillating  by  its 
moral  lesson  ;  Tsardom  is  breaking  up  in  its  corruption, 
the  Nation  is  awakening. 

The  precise  forms  that  will  be  assumed  by  this  upheaval 
are  secondary,  notwithstanding  their  immense  impor- 
tance. Upon  them,  it  is  true,  depends  the  number  of 
victims  here  or  there,  and  humanity  bids  us  hope  that 
the  agony  of  Tsardom  will  be  unaccompanied  by  dis- 
astrous convulsions.  This  hope,  however,  can  scarcely  be 
realised.  The  Russian  Empire  has  become  a  chaos, 
where  men  and  ideas  ephemerally  set  and  rise.  This 
chaos  is  symbolised  in  the  reiterated  and  monstrous 
contradictions  of  Nicholas  II.  ;  by  his  indecision  ;  his 
manifest  duplicity  ;  his  megalomania,  which  after  the 
scattering  of  his  fleets  and  armies,  stickles  for  the  notion 
of  honour — the  fool's  honour,  which  immolates  the  rising 
generation  of  the  country  to  economise  a  little  money 
in  this  disgraceful  affair  ! — the  honour  of  this  caricature 
of  a  Sovereign  who  ensconces  himself  trembling  in  his 
Castle,  dares  not  show  himself  to  his  people,  as  yet 
pacific,  and  traitorously  assassinates  them  in  the  streets ! 
the  honour  of  the  sick  man  who  brags  in  the  morning 
that  he  will  save  his  country,  and  saves  it  again  at  night 
by  undoing  what  he  has  just  done.  The  Bureaucracy  to- 
day takes  part  with  the  Tsar,  to-morrow,  when  menaced, 
compromises  with  the  enemy  ;  the  bourgeois  oscillating 
between  childish  timidity  and  virile  wrath  ;  the  artisan 
going  from  icon  to  bomb,  from  bomb  back  again  to 
icon  ;  the  peasant  sacrificing  to-day  the  terrorists,  to- 
morrow the  nobles ;  all  these  classes  are  at  present 
involved  in  a  tempest   of  infatuation  which  forbids  any 

U 


290  RUSSIA  FROM  WITHIN 

prospect  of  consecutive  action.  But  the  initial  phases 
of  all  revolutions  have  followed  the  same  course. 

One  thing  is  certain — Tsardom  will  not  recover  from 
its  decadence,  for  this  is  natural  and  fatal.  By  a  more 
and  more  rapid,  but  absolutely  logical  development,  it  has 
evolved  to  disaster,  at  once  internal  and  external.  Just 
as  the  Bureaucracy  has  lost  the  two  great  symbols  of 
its  mundane  power,  Port  Arthur  and  Mukden,  in  this 
sanguinary  war,  so  in  the  moral  war  it  has  insolently 
launched  against  its  clients  it  has  lost  the  only  two  bases 
of  a  stable  government :  popular  esteem  and  its  own 
dignity.  And  these  are  the  imponderable  agents  that 
dominate  the  world,  and  which  never  return  to  those  who 
have  not  known  how  to  keep  them. 

Whatever  be  the  successive  phases  of  this  agony,  they 
will  develop  by  an  inexorable  internal  filiation  from  the 
pre-revolutionary  circumstances  sketched  in  these  pages  ; 
and  in  these  circumstances  they  will  find  an  explanation 
that  will  justify  them  before  the  tribunal  of  the  human 
conscience. 


THE   END 


R.  CLAY  AND  SONS,  LTD.,  BREAD  ST.  HILL,  E.C.,  AND  BUNGAY,  SUFFOLK. 


A     NEW     EDITION    UP     TO     DATE 


WALLACE'S    RUSSIA 

By  Sir    DONALD   MACKENZIE  WALLACE 
With  two  colored  maps,    $5.00  retail 

The  first  edition  of  Wallace's  "Russia"  was  published  in 
1877,  and  was  at  once  accepted  as  the  leading  authority  in 
English.  The  author  has  brought  the  lxx)k  up  to  date,  and 
the  present  edition,  rewritten  throughout  and  greatly  en- 
larged, may  now  be  accepted,  as  the  first  one  was,  for  the 
one  work  in  our  language  most  needed  by  those  who  care  to 
understand  Russia. 

CoNTKNTS :  Travelling  in  Russia;  In  the  Northern  Forests: 
Voluntary  Kxile;  The  Village  I'riest;  A  Medical  Consultation:  A 
Peasant  Family  of  the  Old  Type;  The  Peasantry  of  the  North;  The 
Mir  or  Village  Community;  How  the  Commune  has  been  preserved 
and  what  it  is  to  effect  in  the  Future;  Finnish  and  Tartar  Villages; 
Lord  Novgorod  tlie  Great;  The  Towns  and  the  Mercantile  Classes; 
The  Pastoral  Tribes  of  the  Steppe;  The  Mongol  Domination;  The 
Cossacks;  Foreign  Colonists  on  the  Steppe:  Among  the  Heretics;  The 
Dissenters;  Church  and  State;  The  Noblesse;  Landed  Proprietors  of 
the  Old  Sch.onl;  Proprietors  of  the  Modern  School;  Social  Classes; 
The  Imperial  Administration  and  the  Officials  ;  Moscow  and  the 
Slavophils;  St.  Petersburg  and  European  Influence  ;  The  Crimean 
War  and  its  Consequences  ;  The  Serfs  :  The  Emancipation  of  the 
Serfs;  The  Landed  Proprietors  since  the  Emancipation;  The  Emanci- 
pated I'easantry;  The  Zemstvo  and  the  Local  Self-Government ;  The 
New  Law  Courts;  Revolutionary  Nihilism  and  the  Reaction;  Socialist 
Propagiuida  ;  Revolutionary  Agitation  and  Terrorism  ;  Industrial 
Progress  and  the  Proletariat;  The  Revolutionary  Movement  in  its 
Latest  Phase;  Territorial  Expansion  and  Foreign  Policy;  The  Present 
Situation. 

"One  of  the  stoutest  and  most  honest  pieces  of  work  produced  in 
our  time;  and  the  man  who  has  produced  it,  .  .  .  even  if  he  never, 
does  anything  more,  will  not  have  lived  in  \3^\ny— Fortnightly 
Review. 

"  Excellent  and  interesting,  .  .  .  worthy  of  the  highest  praise. 
.  .  .  Not  a  piece  of  clever  book-making,  but  the  result  of  a  large 
amount  of  serious  study  and  thorough  research  .  .  .  We  commend 
his  book  as  a  very  valuable  account  of  a  very  interesting  people." — 
The  Nation. 


Henry      Holt     and      Company 

23  W.  23U  Street  (vu,  'oj)  New  York 


America,  Asia  and  the  Pacific 

WITH    SPECIAL    REFKRE.N'CE   TO   THE    RUSSO-JAPANESE 
WAR    AND    ITS    RESULTS 

By  Dr.  Wolf  von  Schierbrand, 

Author  of  '^Germany  of  To-day,'''' 

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This  book  treats  the  present  conflict  and  its  probable  results 
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rivals. 

Fuhlic  Opinion:—^''  A  most  interesting  treatise  .  .  .  liaviiifj  an  im- 
portant bearing^  upon  our  future  projjrcss. " 

Rd'ieiv  of  RtTJews: — "  His  observations  on  the  Panam.i  Canal  and 
the  future  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies  are  particularly  interesting  and 
suggestive." 

Outlook: — "An  interesting  .  .  .  survey  of  a  broad  field  .  .  .  The 
work  contains  a  great  variety  of  useful  information  Concerning  the 
many  countries  under  review  .  .  .  especially  valuable  to  American 
exporters." 

Pliilade!f<hiiX  Ledi^er: — "Will  repay  perusal  by  every  thoughtful 
business  man.  .  .  .  Presenting  in  a  forceful  and  attractive  manner  the 
importance  of  the  Pacific  as  the  future  field  for  the  world's  politic.J 
and  commercial  activity." 


Russian   Politics 

By  Herhkrt  M.  Tn(tMP.S(^N.      With  niajis,   i2mo,  $2.00. 

An  account  of  tlie  relatimis  of  Fvussian  geotjrapliv,  history. 
and  politics,  and  of  the  bearing's  of  tin-  last  on  questions  of 
world-wide  interest. 

Outlcnk : — "The  result  of  careful  study,  compactly,  clearly,  and 
cfTeciively  presented,  .  .  .  The  author's  aim  is  to  stir  the  friends  of 
freedom  throughout  the  world  to  a  deeper  interest  in  the  cause  of 
Russian  liberty.  His  work  is  vivified  by  the  fact  that  his  heart  is  in 
it.  The  chapters  upon  the  methods  by  which  the  Russian  serfs  were 
emancipated,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  almost  re- 
ensi.ived  bv  debt  and  ta.xatmn.  are  particularly  worthy  of  the  ex- 
amination of  students  of  social  politics. 

Henry      Holt     and      Company 

2)  W.  23!)  Strbbt  (vii,  "05I  New  Yokk 


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